Talk:Maidan snipers

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This is a talk page for discussing Maidan snipers. For sources, claims and narratives see the main page. (To see what is hot, see recent changes)

Ukraine Research Thoughts

Okay, I got sucked in more than I meant, and within a week I feel for my part like I've cracked the case and could prove it to anyone real and not brain-dead (tested this at the JJREF in this thread - no one was convinced and said so but CE - they're unreal or brain dead - perfect response then.) I also sort-of revived my old blog Petri's been pimping on Facebook with this new post that might lead to more adds. I was about to start a section here on the hotel, but I've been putting it together more at that thread, wondering how important it is to get what where ATM. So it comes up, how big should this page get before it become its own Wiki, or should. Or maybe just a multi-page thing like Ghouta. Or maybe, we should be teaming up with Ukrainians on a bigger site they really could use now. In Ukrainian, and English somehow so everyone (the most people) can follow too, and contribute. I don't know. We're not the best people to do this, even if we do solve it so well so quickly. I would like to see it in someone else's hands and focus on Syria, and still feeling kinda bad I left Libya behind, etc. Thoughts? --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:47, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Casus belli for World War III?

See also: Russian fleet in the Mediterranean

In response to #Mercenaries commanded by Andriy Parubiy – This is now becoming a casus belli for what may turn into World War III.

What ACLOS really is, is an on-line game. The real name of the game is "Global Thermonuclear Warfare" – just like the eponymous game seen in the movie WarGames (1983). Just like in the move this is a strategy game. It has no WoW style real time video, but is played by inputting text to the "command line". Like in the movie, this is not really a game. This is for real, about real nukes, about the fate of the World and about Nuclear Armageddon.

Team Chaos won on level 1 (Libya). We on team Truth won level 2 (Syria) by a cat's whisker. We have now entered level 3!

This is what I wrote to Pepe Escobar in response to his article in Asia Times.

The Empire strikes back, not in revenge for Russian plans to abandon the dollar, but for the nuclear confrontation in the Eastern Mediterranean on August 31, 2013. Here is what happened:
Putin's orders to the fleet:
  1. Sink any NATO ship involved in illegal aggression against Syria.
  2. You have the authority to use tactical nuclear weapons in self-defense.
Throughout the year the fleet – with these orders – had prevented a Libya-style air war from US carriers. In August, after first launching the Ghouta CW false flag attack, Obama decided to try "war of aggression lite" by firing his Tomahawks from 1000 km away.
Who canceled the strike? Most likely the attack order was given, but the admirals reported back that they CANNOT fulfill this direct order, as they are "unable to maneuver into a safe firing position." Obama got really, really mad.

-- Petri Krohn (talk) 23:19, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

March 2015

Various Things

I haven't had much helpful to add yet, but an idea ... Petri, you've been plugging away and compiling some valuable info. Maybe what it could use, besides more analysis, is more organization here. Ukraine 2014 could be the general page to organize sub-pages and general stuff/overview. To make it that, mainly we could split-off the Maidan snipers stuff into a page, if that won't throw off too much. Other pages, aside from/partly including the ones that exist:

  • Other Nov-Feb. "Euromaidan" violence and issues
  • "Ukrainian Nationalists" and/or general "people" page
  • "Anti-terror" ops (a page for overview of all, issues related to all, etc. - should have a info-map eventually)
    • Odessa
    • All the others
  • Whatever Else (?)

--Caustic Logic (talk) 12:06, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

Convoy moved, leaders changed. Points to a brand new chapter of a (slow) play. Unfortunately, as of now, no signs of de-escalation. At this level of division and mistrust, it is not yet a runaway train , but it has such a potential. .--Chingachgook (talk) 00:12, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

Handelsblatt editor: The West is on the wrong path --Chingachgook (talk) 20:13, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

Foreign ministers are meeting in Berlin [1] --Chingachgook (talk) 19:54, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

On this page ... I guess we thought it would be the only issue, but Ukraine 2014 became the Maidan snipers page, and Category talk:Ukraine became the general spot. I should explain that somewhere, because I still don't feel up to moving this much stuff and no one else has ... This is the random spot, and one spot where one can find the link, so it can stay. --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:02, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Foreign Influences

Quite a while ago, Pro-Russian journalist Vladimir Rogov made a series of recordings arguing that 'color revolutions' were to a large degree exported from abroad. In particular, Euromaidan flyers were distributed, which were essentially identical to material first distributed in Arabic [2] (those can be found here). Another claim is reliance on publications of 'Albert Einstein institution', and books by Gene Sharp. If reports are accurate, it certainly appears that this campaign was not well thought out. Local dissatisfaction with high level of corruption certainly played a role as well. --Resup (talk) 19:07, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Gene Sharp: "When people are slaughtered, when they are beaten, this produces a process of what I call ‘Political Ju-Jitsu,’ in which the opponent’s supposed strength is used to undermine the opponent by alienating more people from supporting that regime, mobilizing more people into the act of resistance". mediaed.org--Resup (talk) 05:53, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Ex-SBU chief Yakimenko tells about Western funding and guidance, describes flow of cash and daily consulate visits...Points out that leaders were established politicians, not elected by Maidan (indicates they were guided/supported from abroad) --Resup (talk) 04:57, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Crimea documentary-Putin interview 29:23: "we not just assumed, we knew that the real puppeteers were our US colleagues and friends. They prepared nationalists, they trained militants teams . Training took place in Western Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania". --Resup (talk) 03:50, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

Unseen snipers

Sources

Moved from Talk:Unseen Snipers in the Syrian Conflict#Ukraine 2014
Ukraine, Unknown snipers/ Funny, Ukrainian opposition (like Syrian opposition) uses pictures from other countries for their propaganda. First picture - from Ukraine , second picture - from Kyrgyzstan (2010).
Twenty-six people were killed overnight in the most violent clashes yet to have occurred between security forces and protesters since the opposition took to the streets of Kiev in November 2013. Ten of the casualties are Ukrainian police officers, who died of gunshot wounds, as did the rest of the victims, the Interior Ministry reported.
The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior believes the casualties in the clashes could have been killed by the radicals, because the police do not use fire arms.
"Taking into consideration the nature of the dead civilians’ wounds and also the nature of the weapons, which have been confiscated, we can assume that these wounds were inflicted by violent protesters,” a statement at the Ministry’s website says. “Police officers and interior troops do not use fire arms. Law enforcers are only using non-lethal weapons.”
Some of the European leaders have not been convinced and have been quick to lay the blame for the violence on the Ukrainian president.
Several EU leaders have already spoken of introducing sanctions against the Ukrainian leadership, who they view as responsible for the crisis.
Footage from Tuesday’s clashes showed masked rioters firing pistols and rifles from behind the barricades and ramming police cordons with trucks. Reports from the scene claimed both police officers and rioters were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The official Kiev health department count said that 19 of the victims were shot by live ammunition. Dozens more police officers received serious wounds, with officials noting that many of them were shot in the head or in the neck with “sniper-like precision.” (original emphasis)
  • Escalation today. Apparently snipers are on the roofs at the Maidan killing dozens in broad daylight. Earlier they targeted police. Here's a video showing people getting shot from behind, the direction of the filmer - see bullet hitting tree at 20 sec in. --CE (talk) 12:30, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
    No, the fire is coming from the right, from front of the insurgents. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 17:09, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
I said right, but maybe to the left and behind? Slowed and enhanced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fi5BIOtDeg . Much more and the talk page might be a better spot. The second shooting - WTH? --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:27, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Provocateur sniper hysteria on both sides. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 17:00, 2 March 2014 (UTC)
Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) is part of a secret NATO “GLADIO” organization.
The Wikipedia article on UNA-UNSO is written by themselves. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 19:07, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
Ah! I saw their flag in the RT live feed video (7.5 hours from the 20th). Time-stamp: whenever it zooms in under the pedestrian bridge at left. Red over black flag. Was racking my brain last night - was it a rare anarchist flag spotted in Germany, but upside down? Macedonian or Macedonian anarchist? or ... it's the UNA-UNSO flag, apparently. Writing unclear. The Anarchist version's wording says freedom or death, represented by the two colors. I think this story is wrong putting everything on the 22nd. The sniper stuff is all the 20th. So, some important details are vaguely understood, but still glad you brought this here, if just for the flag bit. --Caustic Logic (talk) 04:45, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
Correction: The red-black flag is not the flag of UNA-UNSO. It's the historical battle flag of UPA, used by different groups today, f.e. the Right Sektor has it as background of their emblem. UNO-UNSO is flying the Hammerkreuz, usually on red background like the one in the center of the pic in Engdahl's article. --CE (talk) 05:51, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
Excellent! Total Laibach. I'll be adding the visual in a new section below. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:01, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
This is the interior minister speaking of a "serious investigation" going on now. CL, did you see this article posted by Petri in a way I almost overlooked it myself? Very interesting stuff despite the translation problems and the author complains about a lack of investigation by the interior ministry. I really believe (and hope) they don't need our humble efforts to get to the truth of that thing. --CE (talk) 01:37, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
We are getting somewhere now, though I'm behind, and always was. The Interior Ministry ... no shakeups there? Yet? The initial teaser here is vague. This is a pro-Putsch site re-posting it? That external nation(s) are singled out means either Russia, or something no one ever says, a real bombshell. I'll have to look closer and watch that. Or we'll have to. The Armenian terrorist is interesting, but peripheral to the 20th. The Vorontsove thing ... I never did look at that. Will fix the citation. I started translating (before reading) but saw how long it was... it looks promising, and shows Ukrainians are thinking. Maybe it will help us and them double-check whatever the Ministry plans to say about its findings.--Caustic Logic (talk) 12:08, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
Wow, things are moving fast. Now we have a leaked phone call between EU Ashton and the Estonian foreign minister from last week, talking about the "stronger and stronger understanding" that a "third force" was involved shooting at both police and protesters, pointing to "somebody from the new coalition". Just listened. Most interesting stuff after around 8 min into the call. Maybe they pressured the interior minister into investigating. --CE (talk) 13:49, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
From the windows of the conservatory, which is located on Independence Square, is being aimed fire from a firearm in the direction of the police officers. Injured more than two dozen law enforcement officers.
^ that added by -- Petri Krohn. Interesting. BaltInfo ... is that local (and your) time, 11:18? Same zone as Ukraine? Would fit with my recall that RIA Novosti had already reports about shot police before the reports about snipers came in... must check that. --CE (talk) 19:25, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Yes, I found the report in my RSS feed of RIA Novosti German. Very short, says the same as the BaltInfo report. Timestemp 11:48. I think they use Moscow time which is one hour ahead of Kiev, right? Didn't find anything on the English RIAN version with the crappy search function. --CE (talk) 19:36, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
I'm thinking philharmonic does mean conservatory, by the way. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:24, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
What? No. The Conservatory is directly on Maidan, with free sight to the October Palace and the part with the McDonalds (see Hotel Ukraine in the background of the wikipedia pic). This would fit with the narrative of the SBU guy and these reports, but in the interview "he" talks about the Philharmony (concert hall as opposed to music academy) which is a bit off and as you mentioned seems to be separated from October Palace through a lot including a high-rise Hotel. --CE (talk) 15:39, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
The name is different, but I mean maybe he just got the names mixed up. It's a "musical conservatory." Maybe the words are similar? Or they held both places. But this one's more relevant, and he made it sounds relevant... --Caustic Logic (talk) 21:36, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
Ah, yes, as I said before I also suspect there's some confusion going on. Maybe he isn't from Kiev? --CE (talk) 03:51, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Snipers sow fear and death in Kiev's urban conflict By Richard Balmforth, Reuters, February 21. This report mentions the man shot in the neck at dusk, and passes on activist claims the snipers were on the roof of the metro station and "high ground near the October Palace," not the hotel, or any of the other locations specified.
Self-defense groups on the protesters' side say at least two snipers, and possible as many as four or five, operating from vantage points on higher ground, reduced a small area on the edge of Independence Square on Thursday to a battlefield. ... Protesters said snipers, armed with Soviet-made SVD or SVS weapons and given cover by armed police, used high ground near the October Palace to shoot down onto protesters who earlier that day had advanced up the hill to reclaim lost positions. ... Bad spatial understanding: The marksman responsible for the three deaths which Roman saw was located on a roof of a metro station further up the hill, he said. He thus had a clear line of sight down into the protest zone and the sprawling Independence Square, citadel of revolt, beyond. [1]
  • Who were the Maidan snipers? - Global Post, Alex Padalka March 14, 2014. "Initial reports seemed to indicate all the sniper fire came from the security forces, but some are now questioning that narrative as Ukraine's interim government investigates who was behind the fatal shootings." I think this is the most useful English-language mainstream article yet. It mentions not one clue but several - the Paet-Ashton call, the BBC green-helmet sniper I hope to make more famous soon, and the various competing claims about sponsorship, including Yakymenko, and more. The writing even manages to put them side-by-side a bit, with a minimum of downplaying. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:45, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

RT crew under fire

Armed protesters have taken control of Hotel Ukraine, trapping members of the RT crew inside.
“We were just shot at. It broke a window over here. We were standing centimeters away when a gunshot hit the room where we have our live position,” RT correspondent Aleksey Yaroshevsky said, pointing to the window that had been smashed by the gunfire. He said there were unidentified snipers firing from buildings all around Independence Square.
Yaroshevsky elaborates on the event. It was around 11:00 am, they were on the sixth floor of the Hotel. He shows the room - in the northern "T" facing Maidan. He claims that trajectory and angle of the shot fit with the shooter being on the roof of the conservatory - which he calls "aforementioned" after playing the former SBU chief's story about the "philharmony", so we're not alone in suspecting/understanding that this was a confusion/translation error. --CE (talk) 01:50, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Videos

Berkut policemen with assault rifles, initially claimed by some Yanukovych supporters to be Right Sector militants in disguise. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 18:44, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
Anti-government forces armed with hunting rifles took up sniper positions in a downtown Kiev hotel on Thursday, overlooking protesters and police clashing in Maidan Square below. Police marksmen targeted gunmen appearing in the windows as the two groups exchanged live fire.
This seems to be a rebel video filmed at the Ukraine Hotel. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 18:59, 20 February 2014 (UTC)
I can't even see this one over here, old player or not. Will rely on help if enhancements of short clips is needed. Unless it works for me tomorrow. (??) I hear it's extra-brutal, staring after 10:00 anyway (with the part before perhaps holding clues). This one sounds like it'll be important to analyze carefully. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:14, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
Also copy on youtube. Didn't watch it yet. The uploader has made some "truth" videos, this one showing the snipers up close. He says their weapons are "AKMS" which aren't used by the state anymore but were in that raided weapon depot. No military boots. Yellow armbands - i've seen those on videos of "right sector" worn by their "security" people, but of course that doesn't mean much on its own. --CE (talk) 15:44, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
I already linked to the original 41 minute video. At 3 minutes you shall see that the "fake Berkut" are defending a museum on Institute Street opposite the Maidan. The claim that these are Right Sector is totally bogus. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 18:50, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
Ah, seeing it now, sorry. However, the one above is implied as a segment, but it's a different video, with the tree shooting. On the long one, maybe the same scenes, but a different angle. I have the Youtube video saved (only way I can even watch it well) Not seeing much that's different - rioters advancing on something official, getting shot in the legs and sutff on occasion. At 35:08 you can see one of their white power crosses they try not to display too much these days. Any interesting points anyone can point me to? --Caustic Logic (talk) 02:41, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
  • Fake Bullet Holes Radio Svoboda YT video, 2:16 I had seen this in a re-posting. I replied to a comment calling the bullet holes in the shield fake. (One hole is square. Pick-axe? The blood where the metal was wounded - real or nail polish? Gunshot or poked fingertip? Not sure) That posting was then deleted (maybe coincidence). This version won't be embarrassed away. Are those comments in Russian or Ukranian or both? That matters. Several claim this is faked, one at least cursing the kid who'd lie to the world like that. These comments have by far the most up-votes, including by me - some have 20+ votes up. (The built-in translation there now is really handy. ) --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:45, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
--CE (talk) 14:05, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
Looks like a great trove. I'll try to save these, but I'm afraid they'll be gone before I have time. If someone else made a backup set just in case, wouldn't hurt, except obviously time taken. They should be reviewed too and mined for data. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:02, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
I don't know about trying to save all these. The last one should show any sniping of protesters that happened in the square on the 20th. I'm not sure what time it starts, but it seems to be pre-noon anyway, and it clearly runs past sundown. Ah, wait ... if it stays live, sunset seems to be at about 6:40 video, local sunset at 5:24 = vid start at about an 10:40 AM? Might this be too late, and they're witholding the main segment? Didn't find it yet. At about 1:08-ish there are multiple shot-like sounds, but no noticeable reaction like people getting shot. Anyone else? --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:50, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
  • [3] Bob Lewis, IVN, March 7. Focuses on Fatherland MP Sergey Pinchuk and his sniper rifle waved through on the 18th.
  • Ivan Katchanovski found a "new" video uploaded in late March 2015 which shows how the filmmaker on the foot of Hotel Ukraine notices shooting, zooms in on the Hotel and then flees after a bullet soundly hit close to him. Pretty obvious. Good quality. The channel has a bunch of interesting stuff, all uploaded late March, mostly "peaceful protests" on the 18th and in late 2013. Some seems to be police footage from good positions in high quality. --CE (talk) 13:42, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
Ooh, hey, thanks - I think I can correlate this. It's the same sunset scene BBC's Gatehouse filmed, from a different angle. That will be the same green helmet shooter up there. So well after the main shooting massacre, but about when V. Melnichuk was fatally shot from the hotel direction. This whole scene seemed ambiguous to me - the shooting didn't sound right, like it was recorded, or just really weak? And the panic seemed contrived. Rounds actually hit? Will have a look for anything new. Saved a copy, will come back to it. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:26, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
Looking closer, I was wrong. Looks quite similar, but that's a different window, but the same floor. The article says it's filmed at like 9 in the morning, when cops were mainly being shot at. Since it's not the sunset scene I thought, may be. But that's two shooting episodes seen just from that side, hours apart. --Caustic Logic (talk) 00:08, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

Police barricade on Instytutska

Bullet hole on Instytutska pointing toward Police barricade
Was BBC Sniper position Video

BBC reporting a much different picture (from the below) Feb. 24, with video: Ukraine unrest: Where were snipers positioned in Kiev? and various posting on Youtube that let me save a copy. Gabriel Gatehous has activists show him how all the fire came from a government barricade and buildings behind, or the October palace, and none from the hotel. Deserves a detailed rebuttal, loads of crap fill this report. [2]--Caustic Logic (talk) 05:44, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

I gave this a new headline because I came across the uncut version of the video they show in here as proof of government snipers. It sat on the EuromaidanPR channel all the time, even has subtitles. It starts at this point. It's clear to see that it is unsafe to even lurk around the corner to Institutska, and that while it is so far above the Maidan. They get interviewed and don't seem to really mind, a bunch of girls comes running up the hill and thanks them, etc. Not hiding at all. Poor Dru is there in a different(?) incarnation. Clearly the shooters from the other side are on higher up positions having no problem shooting over the barricades. In one snippet the BBC uses to prove that they had sniper rifles (3:04 in the BBC video), the uncut video (11:34) has them saying "Dima, I see an open window ... Check it out ... Behind the trees ... I cannot shoot". And if you locate the corner and look at what he is aiming at, it's crystal clear: The upper floors of Hotel Ukraine! --CE (talk) 12:33, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
FTR an observation around 5min in, people very close to the camera are speaking in German, Austrian dialect. It's very difficult to understand, something with "camera man" and funny enough, most clearly, "Verstehst Du?" - "Do you understand?" at 5:26. Well, no. ;o) --CE (talk) 18:38, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

What we see on the EuromaidanPR video is the police barricade on Instytutska. The police are shooting at approaching insurgents with AK-47s (AK-74?) These are not snipers, not even marksmen. The fire does not seem well aimed, unlikely to hit anyone in the head, more likely a leg. This is consistent to what we see in videos from the other direction. The reason the police are using firearms is that on February 18 the insurgents started firing at police, killing at least ten and wounding almost a hundred. Standing in line with shields is no longer an option. I am sure the police had full authority for their action, coming from much higher up in the command chain.

There is every reason for the police to defend the barricade. Anyone with a half-a-brain realizes that if the insurgents storm the Rada, that is the end of not only the Yanukovych "regime" but also of constitutional order and Ukraine as a state – maybe even as a nation. Anybody storming the barricade must be either mad, wanting to die or trying usurp power.

I do not know if the barricade was ever stormed. What seems clear, is that all the 70 "Heavenly Hundred" did not die on Instytutska. What seems to have happened is this. The Euromaidan traitors were told by their NATO masters that they need to produce a hundred bodies so sanctions will be levied, maybe even a "No-Fly Zone!" In the evening of February 20th, when the death count was nearing 100 some of the oligarchs saw Western sanctions coming at them. They then ordered their puppet MPs in the Party of Regions to jump ship and vote with the opposition. A rump parliament passed the articles of capitulation, ending all "anti-terror" activities.

I do not think the volunteer Maidanist would be willing to sacrifice a hundred of their bravest to storm the Instytutska barricade. Most of the victims must have been killed elsewhere. It seems evident, that the Instytutska victims for a large part were killed by police. This is the easiest part of the investigation, I am sure even the junta can manage this. If they say that the police killed so-and-so-many victims, then most likely they are at least partly right. This is however NOT the focus of our investigation, nor of the Ashton–Paet tape. What we are after is opposition sniper (the ones that killed the police, remember) and most importantly – provocateur snipers. Unfortunately most of the video footage – provided by the opposition of course – focuses on the Instytutska skirmish. There may be little video of the other, more interesting victims. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 23:20, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

First of all, sorry but don't dare to tell me what the focus of my investigation is, Petri. Second, this contains very useful clues you (like the uploaders) might not fully understand, especially it proves that they are defending against a force shooting from higher up, which can only be Hotel Ukraine and maybe the tall building at the metro station, an important information that doesn't fit with what the three bandits are trying to sell atm and even the narrative in that BBC video. --CE (talk) 00:02, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

BBC Sniper Video

(to be moved)

  • Ukraine BBC Sniper 1.png
    BBC under sniper fire? (not original posting) (Original video on BBC site: BBC Raw: Under sniper fire in Ukraine uprising Reporter: Gabriel Gatehouse) At 2:28, he says "the majority of the gunfire seemed to be coming from police lines," showing the militant front line way down Instytutska. That's not "unseen snipers" nor, at least with that line, does it seem unwarranted. It's any murky sniping on the Maidan/from the hotel that matters, and they get some. Right after, "...but not all of it." The footage at 2:36 looks to me like after most everything, and just after sunset (or ...?). Walking on the north side of the hotel, seeing the metro station to the SE. Not quite the Maidan if so. He was clear which window it came from - one of the upper floors, fifth row from the left, second from the top, window's open. Whoever was up there was intent on making sure the BBC crew got to document another pointless bit of the government crime spree. Except: "I saw the shooter. He was wearing one of the protesters' green helmets." [3] Okay? And there you go. Also not "unseen sniper" but what can you do? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:49, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

This clue has been little-reported, until this March 14 Global Post article. "Pro-Russian news networks were not the only ones that suggested pro-Maidan snipers may have taken part in the shootings. "The majority of the gunfire seemed to be coming from police lines," said BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse. "But not all of it." Gatehouse said he saw one of the shooters "wearing one of the protesters' green helmets," and shooting from an open window in Hotel Ukraine."I can now add that this firing was down from high, onto the grounds of the October Palace, at about sunset (5:24 PM). And, as explained below, a man was shot through the neck, fatally it seems, by a sniper on the same grounds (just where unclear) at dusk/5 PM. Hm! --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:01, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

One counter-argument to this being the obvious sloppy "protester" sniper is fairly obvious and worth considering. For those who blame the Berkut, it's no leap to presume this is one of the same, decked out as a "protester" to implicate them. This can't be disproven, but against it are these points:

  1. Inconsistent behavior - rather than letting his green helmet linger for the BBC camera, he pulled it back and only left Gatehouse's brief glimpse remain, as if embarrassed to have been seen. Also, between the first camera shot and the next, someone in that room pulled the curtains hal-closed, perhaps after crawling up under the window.
  2. How he apparently escaped from capture, stuck way at the top of a hotel generaly run by "armed protesters." It seems likely they let him "get away" because he didn't have to go anywhere except back to not being seen, among his cohorts.
  3. As always, the underlying lack of a sufficiently logical motive for the supposed orders to kill.--Caustic Logic (talk) 13:01, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Raw video

Let's collect all raw video material here. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 11:04, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

The rifle they're seen shooting out with has been called an air rifle. I'm that not a weapons expert I just presumed so. This report takes it seriously. Then he's shot at, I believe that, with hate. The bullet is found, small caliber, not a sniper round (pistol?). The video analysis from there, fascinating. He's saying it was all over there people were shot, and not on the Maidan? If this is the area everyone was talking about, then hey ... everyone already said that fire came from the hotel. It was kind of vague only where it was going to. Why were the unarmed people sent in while the armed one ran back, up to a room maybe, or just held back as if expecting a sudden storm? Hm! --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:32, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Sniper-killer with Euro-Maidan calculated Hotel Ukraine, this confirms radio intercepts

Konstantin Piontkovsky videos

Video analysis

Vladimir Suchan: This video offers significant evidence that the use of snipers on February 18, 2014, in Kiev was planned beforehand and it also shows how it was executed--by the leaders of the Maidan. Some snipers were acting from the hotel Ukraine, which was on that day seized by Maidan protesters. From the same hotel, a party of snipers fired into the back of a group of protesters who were ordered to move forward through the space covered by the camera

By Caustic Logic

  • A series of short videos by me, inspired by the above, showing the same scenes plus other stuff from the 41-min video, basically showing you all that's interesting in it. Mainly each shooting is slowed, zoomed, enhanced, repeated for best detail. I only see shots that could be or must be from the hotel. A few new bits other videos might've missed. I'll post these as I finish and upload them. --Caustic Logic (talk) 05:39, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
    • Berkut run from Gunmen Rossiya 24 included this, stabilized much like I did, but seems to have missed the rebel gunman you can barely see shooting after them - only his helmet and (rifle scope?) are visible. From 9:089:26 in the long video.
    • Ukraine 2-20 enhanced shooting 1 From 12:25, the kid who's ironically shot as soon as he has a shield and it's pointing the right way.
    • Ukraine Feb. 20 enhanced shooting 2 From 14:08 - two men downed after coming to help others, one holding his shield above his head (to use for carrying). Angle of fire somewhat unclear in this case. A man with a rifle, no shield, and no protection from the hotel sniper, is unharmed.
    • Ukraine Feb 20 shooting enhanced 3 Here we see the wall fail to protect two people from shots from behind. The next video follows right from this.
    • Ukraine Feb 20 shooting enhanced 4 (18+) The man in green is downed, shot through the chest and maybe knee, from the hotel. The extra red pixels seem to be it exiting his chest. A little red spot, possibly coincidence, is also visible at the top of his backpack, about right for the entry wound. If that's so, we could get a few windows narrowed down from this. Bonus view at the end, another guy with a shield the wrong way is hit and tips over away from the hotel. In case I forget to mention it again, all these angles suggest somewhere on the west half of the hotel.--Caustic Logic (talk) 13:12, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

Alleged Government Orders

Reuters reports, Feb. 25, that activists have found the smoking gun this it was the embattled government, not provocateur snipers, that sealed its own legal fate by killing innocent protesters. Everyone agrees the shooting by snipers was from Hotel Ukraine. This news clarifies who they must have worked for.

Ukrainian journalists are going through thousands of papers they say were found near Yanukovich's opulent residence near Kiev after he fled the capital and some documents have already started to surface in the Internet.
Although its authenticity could not be confirmed, parliamentary deputy Hennadi Moskal, a former deputy interior minister, published a document online detailing a plan to surround Independence Square - the cradle of the uprising - with snipers and open fire on the protesters below.

In the end they seem to have surrounded it from only one side, but that's not totally clear yet. I suppose this alleged order will be around in image form? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:02, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Mr. Gennady (transliteration like Oleg/Oleh, Olga/Olha - I prefer the one the untranationalists eschew) spoke to the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse on the 24th, on video talking about these orders. (3:12) He says the papers give sniper locations (presumably in agreement with what Gatehouse was shown that day, excluding the hotel) as well as each sniper's exact name plus the names of those in charge (for later arrest, of course). His delivery could be described as calmly shifty. [2] Gennady stuck to this version, even as the narrative shifted to a mysterious "third force" behind the shootings. For a March 7 AP article, the MP (Fatherland party, and former head of the intel agency SBU) acknowledged that police as well were shot. But he insists they were from the old government, not from Russia or any supporter of the opposition:

A former top security official with Ukraine’s main security agency, the SBU, waded into the confusion, in an interview published Thursday with the respected newspaper Dzerkalo Tizhnya. Hennady Moskal, who was deputy head of the agency, told the newspaper that snipers from the Interior Ministry and SBU were responsible for the shootings, not foreign agents.

“In addition to this, snipers received orders to shoot not only protesters, but also police forces. This was all done in order to escalate the conflict, in order to justify the police operation to clear Maidan,” he was quoted as saying. [4] Why he only mentioned the police part once everyone else was saying that remains unclear. It's part of the orders, he says, but he didn't seem important back when they were trying to paint it as a simple government vs. its people conflict. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:06, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Avakov's "Third Force"

“Two weeks ago bullets were flying in Kyiv, in the very center,” he said. “A very serious investigation is underway. I think the time will come when we release the facts: who was shooting whom and on whose command. Fact are now being pieced together. I can just say one thing: the key factor in the confrontation which resulted in the bloody slaughter in Kyiv, turned the battlefield upside down and induced a state of shock was a third force. This force was not Ukrainian. We must understand this very clearly,” he said.
“This is not a question of political opposition. The core issue is human values and our sense of what has happened. It is unacceptable when outside forces presume to control us,” he added. [5]
This is the interior minister speaking of a "serious investigation" going on now. CL, did you see this article posted by Petri in a way I almost overlooked it myself? Very interesting stuff despite the translation problems and the author complains about a lack of investigation by the interior ministry. I really believe (and hope) they don't need our humble efforts to get to the truth of that thing. --CE (talk) 01:37, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
We are getting somewhere now, though I'm behind, and always was. The Interior Ministry ... no shakeups there? Yet? The initial teaser here is vague. This is a pro-Putsch site re-posting it? That external nation(s) are singled out means either Russia, or something no one ever says, a real bombshell. I'll have to look closer and watch that. Or we'll have to. The Armenian terrorist is interesting, but peripheral to the 20th. The Vorontsove thing ... I never did look at that. Will fix the citation. I started translating (before reading) but saw how long it was... it looks promising, and shows Ukrainians are thinking. Maybe it will help us and them double-check whatever the Ministry plans to say about its findings.--Caustic Logic (talk) 12:08, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

What happened at the interior ministry is the key to what they mean by the sponsor nation(s) of the third force. If there was continuity, these are the same investigators considering the masked men behind the attack outside Kiev on the 18th, the killers of their police that day, the rioters, snipers, and alleged mercenaries ... Wow. I suspect quiet deals will be sought to keep that from ever being said out loud. This article for example explains how Arsen Avakov, a opposition lawmaker was appointed Feb. 24 by the post-putsch parliament, after they "dismissed Vitaly Zakharchenko, an ally of embattled President Viktor Yanukovich, following two days of carnage." If there's an unwillingness to investigate the physical facts of the crimes, that will be why. There are many unknowns, but presumably this will be a new Svoboda-friendly Ministry and investigation. The word "serious" will be used, especially if untrue, and probably ammo analysis will be able to blame rifles that Russian nasty units use, proving... almost proving that it wasn't Russia, actually. They'd use something pointing to the U.S., Germany, and/or Israel. Anyway...

Supporting a point to Russia, cleverly veiled, except not really, he follows "when outside forces presume to control us" with "Avakov urged the Kharkiv Oblast not to become the “epicenter of warfare.”" Or, actually, what does that mean? --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:32, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Pointing to Russia more explicitly now. AP, March 7 report: Russia and Ukraine give different versions of sniper tragedy that drove Yanukovych from power (mirror)

Ukrainian authorities are investigating the Feb. 18-20 bloodbath, and they have shifted their focus from ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's government to Vladimir Putin's Russia — pursuing the theory that the Kremlin was intent on sowing mayhem as a pretext for military incursion.
...
The government's new health minister — a doctor who helped oversee medical treatment for casualties during the protests — told The Associated Press that the similarity of bullets wounds suffered by opposition victims and police indicates the shooters were trying to stoke tensions on both sides and spark even greater violence, with the goal of toppling Yanukovych. [4]

Despite the familiarity, it's not Olga they're referring to - she reportedly was offered the job but turned it down. Instead, it's an apparent underling: Oleh Musiy, two month veteran of Maidan field clinics. He told AP of his apparent superior "her comments do not correspond with reality." His own observations were the same, but his conclusions more nuanced. The report says

...on Feb. 20 roughly 40 civilians and protesters were brought with fatal bullet wounds to the makeshift hospital set up near the square. But he said medics also treated three police officers whose wounds were identical.
Forensic evidence, in particular the similarity of the bullet wounds, led him and other to conclude that snipers were targeting both sides of the standoff at Maidan — and that the shootings were intended to generate a wave of revulsion so strong that it would topple Yanukovych ... and also justify a Russian invasion. [4]

Elipses added for effect. Where do you get the last part, just from looking at the victims and obvious intent to provoke an overthrow? But he clarifies their usefulness to his new government: "In fact if there hadn't been this provocation, this action from a 'third sector,' I think Yanukovych would have remained in power," Musiy told AP.

From the same article, there are others working on identifying the third force. First, absolving Ukrainians:

Deputy Interior Minister Mykola Velichkovych told AP that commanders of sniper units overseen by the Berkut police force and other Interior Ministry subdivisions have denied to investigators that they had given orders to shoot anyone.

Then, what kind of bullets are these?

The next day (March 6?), Prosecutor General Oleh Makhntisky said officials have found sniper bullet casings on the National Bank building a few hundred yards up the hill from Maidan, the square that became the center and the symbol of the anti-government protests. He said investigators have confirmed snipers also fired from the Hotel Ukraine, directly on the square, and the House of Chimeras, an official residence next to the presidential administration building. [4]

Locations identified, lines forthcoming. --Petri Krohn (talk) 10:22, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

(autotranslated) Prosecutor General's Office identified the snipers who shot people in the street Instytutska in Kiev during the protests in February, said in a broadcast TSN Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Golomsha. He added that the prosecutor's office check including foreign nationals, although not specified, from which it states. Sniping Weapons seized and now it is verified by the investigation, said the prosecutor's office. --CE (talk) 03:47, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
The Nazi-run prosecutors office is now confirming the whole sniper provocateur theory. I bet they will find that the "suspects" are Russians working for Putin! -- Petri Krohn (talk) 08:24, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
"These individuals have been identified but I can not reveal their surnames. A number of circumstances on making these shots have been determined and their locations have been determined," Makhnitsky said on Channel 5 on March 20.
When asked which country they were from, Makhnitsky said: "As of today, the list of people we have identified…this list will be expanded, everything depends on certain circumstances, now the agency checks continue, so as of now this list includes Ukrainian citizens only."
It was never said this outside (Russian!) force had no Ukrainian helpers. Presumably they'll start with percieved pro-Russian citizens, Communist party secretaries who've since escaped, etc. This firm basis will then be used to illustrate the puppeteer; however little sense it seemed at first to make, how else do you explain all these pro-Russian/Commie snipers? It must be Russia! --Caustic Logic (talk) 22:53, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Paet-Ashton Call

This a sort of complex he-said, she-said thing that deserves sorting out and clarifying. It's easy to misread a misreading and get confused, and that might even be the plan. (forthcoming) --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:32, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Did you notice that military censorship kicked in? The release of the story was delayed by 12 hours by US media. This is standard White House and State Department procedure, when the media get hold of some damaging scoop, they are asked to delay for half a day while the authorities get the story "straight" (i.e. spinned). What makes this unprecedented is that the story was already all over the Internet and global news channels. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 10:42, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
No, I haven't been watching details like that. Good catch then, if so. The reaction among the Kiev cabal too underlines how this is a real tender seam. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:52, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
Direct Transcript

From the audio, the most relevant part, word for word with pauses and all.

Paet: ...what was quite disturbing was the same Olga (prev. mentioned) told that, well all the evidence shows uh, that the people who were killed by snipers, from both sides, among policemen and people on the streets, that they were the same snipers, killing people from both sides.
Ashton: Well that's ... (inaudible, overrun)
Paet: So that, and then she also showed me some photos uh she says as medical doctor she can, you know, say it is the same - the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and - it's really disturbing that now the new, uh ... new coalition that they don't want to investigate what exactly happened, so that there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers there were, it was not Yanukovych but it was somebody from the new coalition.
Ashton: I think we they do want to investigate. (something something) Gosh.
Update: I think everyone's been getting the last part wrong. Why does she jump in and say "we want to investigate?" It's like an answer to a question not asked? But to a charge just made that the new coalition doesn't want to, "I think they do want to investigate."Justin Raimando got that right, I think. Looking around, it seems others did too, but that's where I first noticed it. Good article too. --Caustic Logic (talk) 22:35, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Some of the following discussion, and the preceding, may be worth including here too. It should be noted that, especially talking behind the scenes, a desire to "investigate" may mean a desire to whitewash it, make sure the conclusion enforces, not challenges, the EU's west-trending narrative for Ukraine. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:28, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Initial Reports
The overthrow of the government of Ukraine was an armed coup d’état ordered, planned, organized, funded, carried out and executed by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Pentagon, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and their surrogates in the European Union (EU) using every instrument at their disposal including the National Security Agency (NSA) and all of their amassed media resources. It was carried out with the knowledge and approval of US President Barack Hussein Obama if not at his directive.
Rebuttals
Estonia has confirmed the authenticity of a leaked telephone call between its foreign minister and an EU chief which suggested the sniper killings in Ukraine last month were ordered by the new coalition.
...
In a statement, the Estonian government denied Paet viewed the opposition as being involved in the sniping. 'Foreign Minister Paet was giving an overview of what he had heard the previous day in Kiev and expressed concern over the situation on the ground,' it said. 'We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition's involvement in the violence. A spokeswoman for Ashton declined to comment on the leaked conversation.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has not reacted officially, but Itar-Tass news agency quoted a source at the ministry on Wednesday as saying that Moscow was 'surprised' that the EU was not commenting on the intercepted phone chat.
Olga Bogomolets said she had not told Mr Paet that policemen and protesters had been killed in the same manner. "Myself I saw only protesters. I do not know the type of wounds suffered by military people," she told The Telegraph. "I have no access to those people."
But she said she had asked for a full forensic criminal investigation into the deaths that occurred in the Maidan. "No one who just sees the wounds when treating the victims can make a determination about the type of weapons. I hope international experts and Ukrainian investigators will make a determination of what type of weapons, who was involved in the killings and how it was done. I have no data to prove anything.
"I was a doctor helping to save people on the square. There were 15 people killed on the first day by snipers. They were shot directly to the heart, brain and arteries. There were more than 40 the next day, 12 of them died in my arms.
"Our nation has to ask the question who were the killers, who asked them to come to Ukraine. We need good answers on the basis of expertise." Mr Paet's assertion that an opposition figure was behind the Maidan massacre was not one she could share.
"I think you can only say something like this on the basis of fact," she said. "Its not correct and its not good to do this. It should be based on fact."
She said the new government in Kiev had assured her a criminal investigation had begun but that she had not direct contact with it so far.
"They told me they have begun a criminal process and if they say that I believe them. The police have not given me any information on it."

An AP report of March 7 passed on the new health minister's Oleh Muisy's version of her observations - the same snipers shot both police and protesters, and they were Russian. For missing the second part, he said "her comments do not correspond with reality." AP tried to talk to her as well, but "Bogomolets could not be immediately located by the AP for comment; she did not answer repeated calls to her cell phone or respond to text messages." [4]

Consideration

Maidan Translators cites Olga Bohomolets saying at 1:04 PM local "
A sniper is operating near Hotel Ukraine. Be careful! Already dozens of wounded and, tragically, 3 dead. Please bring ambulances as close to Hotel Ukraine as possible, to bring out the wounded." [6]

In between comments, to Paet and to the press, she was unprofessionally revealed as a person, allegedly, blaming the new government for the false-flag sniper incident. That can make a person backtrack. She didn't see the police officers shot? Maybe not. Those shot dead, at least, with "sniper precision," were on the 18th (where I'm not sure). And Paet said she cited medical photos. Hm. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:04, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

As I posted over at JREF (and actually found by a commentator on MoA), in this CNN interview from the 20th, she contradicts what the Telegraph says she said by mentioning that she treated Berkut. It seems to me like she's talking about the quite dramatic events of the day, not sometime before, but that's not 100% clear. As we both noticed, she might be in danger now due to this leak and not willing to openly repeat what she told Paet (whose "out of context" claims are rather lame). No word from the "Baroness", apparently. Gosh! --CE (talk) 15:32, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
That the one side was the opposition could have just been played as a misunderstanding, as she's tried. But that exactly is apparently being taken as her word, and one to hush up. The new health minister has her calling it right except for the obvious Russia angle... now he says she's out of touch with reality, and just out of touch. :( Will check the interview. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:33, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Eric Zuesse went back to this and published a transcript with a lot of injection and interpretation. Trying to remember what we discussed about that, and thinking that maybe a "bombshell" he claims to have identified looking back almost a year was relevant, I came back here. Which made me realize something about this "bombshell" I just commented on under the article at Fort Russ:

The "bombshell" here is based on a "mishearing" in the transcript. Paet does not say "the same oligarch" at 8:23 into the audio (meaning Poroshenko as Zuesse claims), but "the same Olga" (Bolgomets) as Zuesse himself injects in the next sentence when Peat carries on with "she".

I have a hard times believing that this was an innocent mistake. --CE (talk) 20:39, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

That's a strange goof-up indeed. I've wondered about Zuesse before, but I do that with little reason sometimes. --Caustic Logic (talk) 00:34, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Vorontsov Study

The title is intriguing, as are lines like "Burned House of Trade Unions , as the Reichstag , immediately attracts attention." The important parts of the article, as it stands, unreadable. Google Translate gets most of the unimportant connecting words, but less than half of the operative ones. Example:

In pervuju Queue upon áûëî verified that version, kotorыe today voznykayut on the background katastrofycheskoy ynformatsyonnoy failure, versions , kotorыe could áû obъyasnyt Many strannыe Facts and although áû partially Reply to Many Questions . For example , why sylovыh ​​Employees structures so pospeshno otstupyly of October Palace ? [7]
You seem to be translating from Russian. The language / orthography is Ukrainian. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 16:28, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
No, I can't tell them apart, but I had Google Translate "detect language" just to check. It said Ukrainian like I expected. But it gave gibberish. If you can get or find a better result, let me know. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:03, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

I just don't know how good a question that is. But the use of photos, videos, logic, and correlation show he's either doing it right, or trying to look that way. I tried to suss out if he was saying the line of fire from the palace roof to the insurgent's piined-down position. I don't know if he's asking well, then why weren't they shot from there? Or are the marks on the tree supposed to show they did? This one I shelve for now, but it's worth trying to understand, eventually. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:50, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Update: It took a long time to try ignoring the advice and translating this from Russian. It suddenly reads a lot better. Apparently it's in Russian. Below is a good spot for anything we dig out from it now. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:28, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Official Sniper Investigations

Russia Blamed, SBU officers charged

Kiev has decided the SBU did it with help of or at behest of Russia. Four/six SBU officers will be charged. http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/nalyvaichenko-four-high-ranking-sbu-officer-in-custody-over-euromaidan-sniper-shootings-366989.html KatKan (talk) 11:29, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Quelle surprise. As with the Odessa massacre, the guy finally accused of being behind it/to blame - here Yakymenko, there the deputy police guy - has fled to Russia where he engaged in "Whistleblowing", blaming the blamers - Nalyvaichenko is alleged to be among those allowing the SBU to be infiltrated by the CIA (see below) - and saying that the practical organizer was Parubiy, in both cases. --CE (talk) 12:03, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
Ukraine
Russia

Avakov made a statement today as well:

Suspects flee: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 18:09, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

But but but I thought now it was a "black unit" from Berkut and not an "alfa" unit from SBU? The following alleged Berkut veteran says the unit in question wasn't named "Black" but something else and gave cover to the retreating Berkut collegues. At 8 am local time, interestingly enough. When 50 of them were taken hostage. Don't know if that fits any time line so far. --CE (talk) 22:33, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

They could easily reconcile this with one group doing the actual snipering, another just involved in, you know, the other killings and stuff. I'm still to vague on these details to decide anything yet. Are Berkut under SBU, Interior, or both? Etc. But these scoundrels will clearly implicate as many units and agencies as possible - the whole rotten old order was in on it somehow, and needed torn down and replaced with ... whatever. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the regime allegedly mobilized their equivalent of the Boy Scouts, to stand by in a park across town as possible human shields. From what I know, I'd take 8 am as the start of the shooting-leading-to-evacuation crisis. He mentions covering for Berkut and interior police, at different times - 50 of the latter were captured, along with about 17 others for minimum 67 taken - no Berkut at all that I know of. They stuck together pretty good and dragged off their own themselves. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Comments

I find it quite likely that the Berkut fired at people on February 20, possibly killing some of them. This has however nothing to do with the snipers or the sniper investigation. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 13:59, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Conflation and confusion are the friends of the con-job and the cover-up. Indeed. The massacre victims are seen on video. There should be a victim-to-victim match to back up any such distinction they make. I doubt there will be. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Report Availability

They have published a printed / PDF report. It was shown at the news conference. It should be available somewhere. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 20:42, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Here is a picture of the presentation. Found in this article (German, read-worthy). The "three bandits" are from left to right Interior Minister Avakov, General Prosecutor Makhnitsky (Swoboda) and SBU chief Nalyvaichenko, who according to the article has been SBU head before, in "Orange" times under Juschtschenko, and "opened the service to the CIA". --CE (talk) 20:49, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Ukraine Snipers Presentation detail.png

I tried a Google search for words in Ukrainian that should have brought up the published report, but no luck. It'd be in English too, if not exclusively. :) Keeping an eye out though. Thanks for the photo, CE - was able to make this enhancement (inset). Clearly this is a slide mainly about who did it, not how or where. There does seem to be one building show, probably one of the irrelevant ones up north. A BBC report I saw has a map (they made?) of the newly alleged sniper nests - two places at the north end of the Maidan where relatively little sniping can have happened, explaining: "The new authorities have identified two places where they think snipers operated from, on Khreshchatyk Street and Kostiolna Street, but it is believed snipers also opened fire from the Ukraina hotel and the National Bank building." Those were still being investigated. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:25, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

May 2014

Even more interesting, the SBU snipers he blames ... not on government rooftops but amongst the "protesters," blended in as if them. And maybe in fact them, but he doesn't think so. See my article:

More detail:

Head of the committee Gennady Moskal believes that representatives of public organizations getting out of control could have been shooting at demonstrators. Without elaborating, which organizations were meant, Moskal noted that then “the first shot was made at policemen.”
“Any person could infiltrate in the ranks of the protest movement under the guise of fight against” incumbent authorities, he told a news conference. In his view, a theory is not ruled out that officers of the Ukrainian Security Service or the Interior Ministry as their supporters posing as activists could have been shooting.
Who , why and with what weapons opened fire on police officers, trying to figure out now temporary parliamentary commission of inquiry , considering several possible versions. According to the chairman of the commission Gennady Moskal, agents could shoot or regular MUP or SBU, dressed as maydanivtsi . Or the so-called third force , which is not subordinated to protesters .
...
"We're trying to figure out who fired not only Activists Square , but also in law enforcement. We have three versions: it could be agents of representatives of the Interior Ministry, Security Service, dressed in maydanivtsiv because during events at the Square there could get anyone to fight and " alleged against Yanukovych ." It could be a full-time operational staff SBU or MIA dressed differently. Do representatives of NGOs, which came out of control and no one obeyed , because they could not be subordinated to political parties. Or maybe it was the NGOs that are not registered with the Ministry of Justice , "- said Gennady Moskal.
He promised that the commission will continue to investigate to find out who it was provoked shooting people on both sides of the barricades.

Follow-up:

In Kiev gone all documentation regarding the shooting Yevromaydanu participants. This was stated by MP, chairman of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into killings Square, Gennady Moskal. According to him, the Ministry of Interior destroyed all documentation and hilzoteku.
Kyiv Prosecutor's Office has started proceedings for concealment of police crimes against activists Square . According to the press service of the agency as a result of such negligence without actually investigating the facts causing more than 350 citizens injured during the events in the city center 18-20 February 2014.

"We are continuing the process of lustration Because of the unfair attitude of law enforcement area to perform their duty was to conceal the crime records. Location 190 materials that category registered Shevchenko district MIA of Ukraine in Kiev , currently do not know , "- said in a statement .

As noted in the prosecutor's office, it is impossible prompt, full and impartial investigation of crimes. "We continue the process of self-purification and lustration. Guardians had to make the data in the Single Register of pre-trial investigations and conduct an investigation. This was not done. It is an offense for which we must take responsibility "- the Kyiv City Prosecutor Nikolay Gerasimyuk . With this in mind Kyiv prosecutor opened a criminal prosecution proceedings against the leaders and district police Shevchenko district of Kyiv for the crime under Part 1, Art. 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ( negligence ).
Seventeen law enforcement officers were killed from gunshot wounds on Feb. 18-21 amid the violence of the EuroMaidan Revolution, a committee led by lawmaker Hennadiy Moskal said on May 21.
  • Parubiy Interview, May 21: says a (different?) investigation can't yet say where they were, but the shooters were Russian special forces, who later escape. Parubiy was, at that time, in charge of securing protester-held areas and, for example, catching or stopping outisder snipers who snuck in.

International Renaissance Foundation

  • Summary of the public report of human rights organizations on crimes committed during the period of Euromaidan - International Renaissance Foundation, February 20, 2015
  • In Hundreds of Photos and Videos, Maidan’s Atrocities Take Shape - Roman Romanov, International Renaissance Foundation, February 20, 2015
    For next 10 weeks there were a number of new attempts to dissolve the protest: Parliament adopted a package of restrictive new laws, and hundreds of activists were arrested, kidnapped, and tortured. According to our investigation, the police closely collaborated with groups of civilians who attempted to provoke violence. At the height of the chaos on February 20, mass shootings killed more than 100 Ukrainians.
    Most people in Ukraine don’t believe those deaths were accidental, or even a simple abuse of police power. They believe the violence was organized and ordered from the top levels of government, an orchestrated effort to crush the demonstrations through assault and illegal detentions.
    To gain a clear picture of whether those suspicions are correct, the International Renaissance Foundation is working with national investigative bodies and the International Criminal Court (ICC). We’ve assembled an open report for the first anniversary of Maidan, in which we brought together 13 different groups and initiatives with a trove of factual information: photos, videos, witness statements—a documentation of human rights violations and crimes committed during the conflict, from which a clear legal assessment of what took place can be made.
Seems like a great report, can see why it took a year. but it's too small to read and I see no zoom button. Not sure I have the time anyway: their section on Maidan Feb. 20 shooting extends to more than half a page, and that's not even double-spaced. It probably lists how many people died, points out how everything so far seemed to be by the regime, and so this probably was too, to simultaneously "crush the uprising" and also "bring things to a head" by provoking them into overthrow (was supposed to be some other part, we guess, but it didn't happen). If it mentions police getting shot, the strategic use of that to those taking over will be ignored in favor of saying Y (and hinted, maybe Russia) hoped to trick the police into shooting even more protesters by shooting some of them, but it backfired and too many were ahot and ran away, allowing the takeover, which again won't be mentioned. Probably don't mention the issue at all. But this is definitely someone's money's worth. "Human Rights" people always make the best investigators, and those OSI guys and Soros are the experts in issues of "freedom" and "costs." And they got deep pockets to buy more and more of it - especially when the heaviest payments are externalized for free onto expendables like the "heavenly hundred." --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:25, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
20.02.14 "In the morning, Berkut fighters started throwing Molotov cocktails at the Academy of Music," setting of the confrontation. That would be rather unusual for a police to do, especially to start their day with. Is there actual evidence, I wonder? I note there are other publications where protesters are quoted saying that, but in highly disputed events, it would be nice to try verifying things at least. Do not remember seeing such video; have seen videos though where Molotov cocktails are thrown into Berkut, and Berkut does not respond. In another video, Berkut collects cocktails thrown at them, than some of those are thrown back at protesters, -but this is not quite the same as policemen coming to work with Molotov. --Resup (talk) 14:46, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

International Criminal Court

Ukraine is not a member of the world's permanent war crimes court, but has granted the ICC jurisdiction over any crimes that might have taken place on its territory from November 21 to February 22, when the parliament removed Yanukovich from his post.
The new government of Ukraine referred the case to the ICC, alleging that Yanukovich's troops killed more than 100 demonstrators in Kiev and other cities.
Mark Kersten is a researcher at the London School of Economics and the author of the blog Justice in Conflict.
Tries to seem balanced and thoughtful-seeming, says little of substance, gets to the true tone near the end:
There is an evident thirst within Ukraine to achieve justice. As the former head of state whose lucrative lifestyle offended many, Yanukovych is now the poster-boy for achieving accountability. Shipping him off to the ICC or to Ukrainian authorities would be a smart move if Moscow is truly interested in rebuilding good relations with its neighbor — and salvaging its international reputation. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:07, 22 June 2014 (UTC)
  • Ukraine accepted ICC jurisdiction, according to ICC press-release , 17.04.2014. Evidence has to be collected by Ukraine, though, according to reports (link not saved). On 12 November 2014, on President Poroshenko site, it is announced that "Prosecutor General of Ukraine Vitaliy Yarema reported to the President on the course of the investigation of crimes against protesters on Maidan and on the results of interaction with the International Criminal Court. He particularly informed that representative of the international prosecutor had arrived to Kyiv the day before. He will thoroughly examine all the materials in the proceedings, which will subsequently be submitted to the Hague. According to V. Yarema, he has also promised to facilitate the inclusion of former senior officials, regarding which the evidence of involvement in crimes on Maidan was found, in the international wanted list". To figure out what really happened (if that is the plan), they need to make available all video and audio material (including special services conversations, ---intercepts of those were leaked). This is a HUGE job putting all available evidence together, and there needs to be professional investigation doing all that. Kiev may just send details of their internal investigations, missing other evidence (thus likely creating controversy for many years to come).--Resup (talk) 18:20, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
But ICC is saying that the main goal of the mission is to figure out whether they have jurisdiction; so even that apparently is not clear. Tass quoting ICC prosecutor office. --Resup (talk) 18:29, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
WTF! Evidently the ICC only has jurisdiction over niggers and russkies. Honorary Aryans like Ukrainians cannot be prosecuted. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 19:58, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Kalashnikovs found

Kalashnikovs allegedly found in Kiev.

Arrests

Other investigations

British forensic experts

The BBC video form February 24th shows unnamed British forensic experts collecting evidence. Who are these people? What the hell are they doing in Kiev? They do not want to be named or have their faces shown. They do not seem to be doing an objective or transparent investigation. Their presence here proves to me just one thing: the putsch is in fact a NATO military occupation. Controlling the evidence is a key part of any occupation.

I do not know if I even need to ask this: did they publish anything? Who cares! -- Petri Krohn (talk) 23:51, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

It seems like what they published was that video report, filed by Gabriel Gatehouse. As noted elsewhere on this page, he had at the time filmed a report about sniper fire from the hotel Ukraine - which we learned separately killed a man - but BBC hadn't yet published that. When they did run it - a few days after this "investigation" - it served as a bit of a slap to this thorough rundown on directions of fire towards the hotel, and none from it. The details in the report on firing directions should/will be covered below, under #Physical Shooting Marks. Who these clowns are, how they operate, etc. is best under this heading. --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:43, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

German television

Transcript is now up on the page and the segment alone is on youtube as well. Aired yesterday. This was very good, and MONITOR is THE top investigative TV journal in the country and widely watched and respected. Some interesting stuff in there even for us - they have the radio communication of Janukovic's guys wondering who's shooting unarmed people, for example. And they make it crystal clear that the putschists are not seriously investigating, with many voices including pro-Maidan people and lawyers of the victims who are complaining that they don't get to see a single piece of paper with anything remotely forensic. Confirmation that Hotel Ukraine was firmly in the hands of Maidan forces on the day. A doctor, Oleksandr Lisowoi, confirms that he has treated both protesters and police with wounds from identical bullets. Is that Olga's friend or somebody else? A "high-ranking member of the investigative commission" who doesn't want to be named says that what he found out doesn't fit with what the public is told. And on and on. Will watch again. Hopefully someone translates/subtitles it. --CE (talk) 14:37, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Excellent! I will watch for visuals, catch bits I remember from High School German, and otherwise do enough of a Google Translate to identify to coolest parts. As for the doctor, never heard of him. The Olga ally who agreed was the new Health Minister Musiy. That would be three people now, allegedly/reportedly saying that, and all quite informed. Huh. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:01, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Ivan Katchanovski

...

I could locate one rebuttal here at UkraineAnalysis.wordpress.com. In part, it pans the detailed report by noting:

The paper was received rather coldly. Indeed Bohdan Harasymiw, one of the organizers of the conference, ignoring the usual politeness one might expect would be accorded to a guest speaker, derided the paper as having neither theory nor analysis, while another participant from the host institution, Taras Kuzio, dismissed Katchanovski personally as an anti-Ukrainian, noting that his opinions mirrored those of Vladimir Putin and Russian propaganda organs.

Awesome, guys. Read "coldly" as "tellingly." --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:39, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

SITU

Victims

(split from above section - many but not all of these were killed by #Unseen snipers)

Individual victims

This guy seems to be a Maidan victim. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 21:39, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Death Toll and Classification

  • Chicago Tribune, Feb. 25 (for example) reports on the new parliament's decision to have the International Criminal Court try their deposed leader for, as understood, killing protesters.
A resolution, overwhelmingly supported by parliament, linked Yanukovich, who was ousted by the legislature on Saturday and is now on the run, to police violence against protesters which it said had led to the deaths of more than 100 citizens of Ukraine and other states.

If they actually seek charges over "more than 100" they're talking, firstly, about stuff the rest of the world doesn't know and, secondly, they're being extremely loose with the facts of who all these people are and how they died.

The Pravda Ukraine list translated here (see front page) features 78 victims identified by name, and mentions no unidentified people. Of those, 11 are police officers, and 67 are non-police (usually read "protesters," but that's not totally right - see below) As of the 21st, there was a death toll of 77 settled on and reported. Pravda's ictim #46, Basil Prohorskyy, age 33 was only identified on the 22nd, and made it 78. But already by the 22nd, the final death toll however was later set by Ukraine's Interior Ministry (citing the Health Ministry) at 82 people killed, from the 18th to the 20th. (Voice of Russia) The Wikipedia article 2014 Ukrainian Revolution cites 82, specifying 13 police are included. A Global Post article says "an official toll lists 82 people killed in three days, including around 15 police," sounding like my own deduction off the unchanging non-police 67. I'm inclined to this total If I see no better info. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:29, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

The battle over the death toll seems to be ongoing. This Daily Fail article manages to fudge it upwards twice before it's done at nearly the 100 "Kiev" says it was above. "At least 88 people were killed in gunbattles between police and anti-government protesters in late February," and later they seem to have a firmer number: "94 people were killed and another 900 injured during the standoff..." --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:56, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Unarmed Protesters not involved in militant activities. To hear many talk, there were 82 or more than 100 of these, and no one else, who died in the violence. In fact, the number is not clear at all yet. All reports the media handed us failed to make any distinction between those killed in national self-defense and those murdered for no reason. The number in this category could hypothetically be zero, although it seems to be at least a bit higher than that. Of course, only one side in this would stand anything to gain from such a thing.
  • Armed and violent insurgents killed during their push of the seat of government. Again, this number is unknown, conflated and lumped together with those above. There are suggestions a good couple dozen men were shot on this dangerous front, which was all militant, no protests. Therefore, this category is almost surely larger than the one above, but we can't yet say by how much.
  • Police: 13-15 The first ten of the 11 policemen listed by Pravda Ukraine apparently died on the night of the 18th, although dates aren't given. The last is unclear. The last four victims taking the overall toll from 78 to 82 were most likely police who died after the battles of the 20th; many hundreds were clubbed, stoned, torched, shot, and more. That final push appears to have aimed for non-lethality, but on such a scale and with such ferocity on the part of the mobs (see the videos!) overshooting the mark to the tune of 4-5 deaths is to be expected.
  • Other Some people were killed in a bizarre highway attack on the 18th, by a murky gang of masked men we haven't heard the last about. Not obvious state crimes, at any rate, until the Putschists "find" supporting papers... At least two people on the Pravda list died of heart attack. One got ill during the fighting, and died after returning home. One victims among the 67 is an employee at the Regions Party headquarters, reportedly beaten to death when "protesters" raided and torched the place. (to be expanded)

Snipers on the Maidan?

Many sources report, and I've been repeating, that a number of protesters were shot, not in the push on parliament, but just standing peacefully in the Maidan, by snipers in the Hotel Ukraine, on the 20th. The reports suggest this happened at least just before 1 PM, was talked about a lot until about 1:30, and there was a report of a sniper captured at 1:15. What I'd like is a more clear and detailed report or video of this actual event or its aftermath. I haven't watched even all the ones we have linked here yet, but I also looked around for videos claiming to show that. I didn't find any yet. Anything about sniping that specifies the Maidan, coming from any direction, if anyone sees it, should go under this heading. (the BBC sniper episode doesn't count)

Reports: (forthcoming)

Videos: I'm looking at the 7.5 hour RT video feed. Looking across the plaza from the northwest, it takes in the whole front face of the hotel at the far end. It won't be the best view, but one important angle that should add something. Unfortunately, it pans back and forth and doesn't offer an uninterrupted view of the Maidan. It could have missed something, and it might be discontinuous. So far, I can't set a time frame relative to the clock, not find a spot that clearly seems like sniper shooting.

The time of sunset makes the spot around 2:10 worth checking. One series of shooting-type sounds is at about 1:08:56 but it seems too loud (too close to the camera) and has no clear reaction, like screaming or commotion, or any change in the speaker's delivery at the moment. Another good spot seems to be right before the start of the video - a number of ambulances have loaded a few wounded at once and are pulling out.

To get a time-stamp, I'm looking for the sequence shown at 4:00-6:00 in the 41-min video. A big fire is started in about the middle of the ped bridge, fireworks, fire, and commotion on the slope to the left. I can't locate that so far in the RT footage. --Caustic Logic (talk) 08:31, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

October Palace Victims

There should be no casualties here in the opposition version. Protesters overran it arounf 12:25 PM, and used it afterwards as a base and field clinic. Prior to that, it was Berkut controlled, and there would be no protesters there to get shot. Uless they charged up the lawn in a threatening way, perhaps. But one way or another, per the Pravda.ru list, three people died there or by there on the 20th. These are:

  • 56 Oleg Drogobich Ushnevych "shot on Instytutska at the October Palace"
  • 62 Alexander Kinglet "died at the October Palace"
  • 65 - Joseph Schilling , 61, of Drohobycha (Lviv region ) "died on February 20 headshots at the October Palace"

One of these is likely to be this rather interesting victim mentioned by Reuters.

Anti-government protesters hold snipers on the police side responsible for deaths of at least 15 people in Kiev's spasm of violence - the last possibly victim being a man who was sipping coffee with his wife at dusk when he was shot in the neck.
...
An anaesthetist at the Hotel Ukraine medical center, who would give only his first name of Volodymyr, said the last sniper victim had possibly been a man standing with his wife in the grounds of October Palace, drinking coffee.

After a day of violence which tailed off in mid-afternoon, he may have thought the danger was over. "The bullet hit him in the back and side of the neck," said Volodymyr. "We could not do much for him. He was still alive when we sent him for care to another hospital. I do not know what happened to him." [1]

Dusk = about sunset = 5:24 local time, so this too must be the same man seen by a reporter for the Globe and Mail:

Around 5 p.m. just when it appeared the fighting was over, a group of men burst through the lobby door carrying a man who was bleeding from his head. He had been shot in the jaw and the bullet had gone through his head and out his neck. Somehow he was still alive. Three doctors, including the dentist, Dr. Belaglazova, worked on him for nearly an hour. They stabilized him enough for stretcher bearers to carry him far across the square, beyond the barricades, to an ambulance that took him to hospital. “He lost a lot of blood and his nerves are damaged,” said Dr. Serhiy Kharsika, a surgeon who was among those working on the man. “I really hope he survives. The chances are small.”

If he was shot like that at the October Palace, chances are it was from the northeast side of the hotel Ukraine. It was on that same side, just a bit after sunset, that BBC's Gatehouse saw a shooter, 11th floor, wearing "one of the protester's green helmets." [3] When armed protesters with similar helmets went looking for a sniper, then, it was more than anything Gatehouse might've told them that spurred it. They were still killing people from there at sunset. What the hell? Why? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:11, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Elevation clue: upon thinking about it, I realize the nature of this man's injury suggests a sniper in a high position. At least as described, traveling from "jaw" to "neck" means higher to lower, usually, in the narrow span of a man's head. That implies, if imprecisely, a steep angle. The 11th floor the green-helmet-sniper was seen on might explain this. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:05, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Looking again at the RT-Ruptly 7.5 hour live feed video from the 20th I realized the scenes where it pans on Instytutska show the north end of the October Palace Grounds, and for hours flanking sunset (mainly after). Maybe the man sniped in the neck at dusk appears? And also, I placed the BBC News crew there, in this very north lot, when they first film the hotel, around sunset. They run behind the columns that are usually just off-frame (the cameraman pans to them occasionally for "white balance" as the light changes). This RT feed should capture the same scene! In fact, this seems to be filming from an upper floor of the same side of the hotel, either just above or just below the sniper! I'm not sure how big the crew is, and details don't come through. But by number (4-5), color (dark) and movements (together, in no rush) it's likely them. But the best match I noticed with some scanning has a group of about five men moving together in the far lot like the crew should have been. Early on - 4:58:30 they walk into the right spot and pause, just start walking again, then it goes black; no sound 22 seconds, no video 26 seconds, then both return and the men are just gone. The whole episode could fit in that span. I've seen no other blank spots like this. Did the Russians snip this important segment out for personal use only?

I'm mentioning this in a video - to spare me embarrassment, can anyone find a better match for that crew, or even our footage? Seeing that from roughly the sniper's viewpoint would be quite useful. Or should I run with this interesting, making-us-look-smart story about RT apparently redacting this key segment, alongside, obviously, the likelihood that our green helmet dusk sniper shot a man through the neck. ? --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:10, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Too late. I put this in the video (embedded below), but it was wrong. As I added to the video's description:
Until I update this video, please note that the whole RT missing footage segment - 4:20 to 5:30 - is in error. The actual gunshot (or rather, about 15 of them!) can be heard at 6:24 in the full RT video. Sunlight analysis pending, but that time seems to correlate with the time (app. 4:53 PM) of the activist (fisheye) video - meaning there's an audio discrepancy between the two sources. More on this, with a new video, soon. --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:27, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
Ukraine BBC Melnichuk Scene.png

The victim, per Wikipedia victims list: Volodymyr Melnichuk Lived in Kyiv, 40 y/o 20 February 2014 Was helping Euromaidan activists. Shot in the neck by a sniper while standing next to his wife." cited (trans) "The man in that day had no protective ammunition and just watched the confrontation at the walls of the October Palace . Vladimir had to rest and close relatives . - The shot ! Something for garbage ! ? Strelyayut ! Someone killed him ! Right here ! As head vыstrelyl sniper ! ! This video witness the bloody confrontation Thursday. Sniper resulted in mitynharya that watched the events on the square . The hospital trydtsyatydev'yatyrichnyy Volodymyr Melnychuk died. The bullet pierced his neck." The video, I cannot see. Is it actually video of him, or just events? If the former, I need to find a copy if possible. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:14, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

And, last minute before finishing the video, I discovered footage of this shooting from right nearby. Снайпер стріляє в голову активісту євромайдана з готелю "УКРАИНА" (20,02,14) (Sniper shoots to the head of the activist yevromaydana hotel "Ukraine" (20,02,14)) The Melnychuck/BBC sniper incident (see #October Palace Victims), from right by the victim, in the middle of the grounds, the big plaza in front of the main ... curved part. Exactly at sunset. The camera hovers over the hotel and the space the bullet would fly, then as soon as it pans away, the shot's fired (0:41). This looks a bit suspicious, but maybe it's not. It leaves no visual contact to see any flash, and then it pans right back. Too far too see any detail there might be (helmet, muzzle, smoke, etc.) The victim is laid out it seems head away from the hotel, and a few people huddle around. The camera runs for cover, as medics move in and carry him to the clinic (1:47). --Caustic Logic (talk) 00:11, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Update - this video and its audio issues especially are/will be discussed in more detail here.

Inset graphic: BBC crew's two filming positions are in blue - and line of sight to the sniper window, in the middle of the 11th floor. Where Volodomyr Melnichuk fell is the red X, 110 meters almost due north of that window.

looking forward to your video. Just to make sure, is this from the perspective of the shot included? It's linked from that "Vorontsov Study". --CE (talk) 00:40, 23 March 2014 (UTC)
Thanks, was collecting general videos last night and didn't get to that one. I know I'd seen it. But this video is narrower on the dusk sniper, connecting green helmets in the hotel to deaths on the ground, with some "back-in-context" mash-up at the end. --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:23, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Video: Ukraine: Dusk Sniper(s) --Caustic Logic (talk) 22:55, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Pravda Ukraine List

A list of victims from February 19th and 20th with photos is published by Ukrainian Pravda:

Note, that this is the Ukrainian language Ukrainska Pravda at pravda.com.ua. The Russian language Ukrainskaya Pravda at ukrpravda.ua has ceased publication. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 20:02, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Interesting. This is more when it was just protesters shot? I suspect these were, peaceful, doing nothing. Compared to the list of sniper target characteristics to look for: some kind of effeminate or sensitive looking guys predominate - this one was in Tears for Fears maybe - a longhair - some kind of artist - several middle-aged men (50+ predominates), a 73-year-old, a few in their 30s, a few in their teens, not so many of prime fighting age. No ovious toughs shown. This guy is closest - too pudgy. One is "member of the district council Horodenka Ivano-Frankivsk from Svoboda" I only translated a few. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:40, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
Fighting age, or fitness, won't likely matter here like it does in Syria, except with people already recruited. Mainly we should look for visible clues that might suggest a person Nazi thugs would pick to put a bullet in, as a bonus for creating another protester "shot by government sniper" to help "justify" your rampage as you go. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:31, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm making a list of Google-translated entries. Unless I counted wrong, there are 68 (I was wrong - 67) protesters/activists/others (it's really a mixed bag) and 11 policemen killed. It'll take too long to finish before posting. Name orders tend to be family first, personal second, but there seem to be exceptions. Only select photos for now. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:31, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

(main list moved to front page --CE (talk) 15:35, 27 February 2014 (UTC))

Vesti Journalist

Entry #9 above: Vyacheslav Veremiy, a journalist of the newspaper "Vesti", 32 years. Titushky vystrelyly man in the chest. He died in the hospital the morning of February 19, 2014 due to loss of blood from the gunshot wound. Without father left 4-month son Vyacheslav. photo

Vesti means News. According to Wikipedia, there are three Vestis - A Russian TV channel until 2010, now Rossiya 24, a newscast of the latter, and also - the only newspaper - Israel's only Russian language daily. Israeli!!! Jew!!! Nazi mobs!!!

But, no ... it's just not a full list. Here is Vesti.ua reporting their reporter's death early on the 19th. Google translated:

Early this morning , 19 February, in the Kiev hospital emergency department died correspondent "Kiev" newspaper "Vesti" Vyacheslav Veremei . Late at night on the eve of masked men (неизвестные в масках ) opened fire on our journalist. Doctors fought for several hours life of Fame (celebrity?), but he died on the operating table.
Revision of "Vesti " expresses its heartfelt condolences to the families of Vyacheslav . Mourn with you . We also demand that the law enforcement authorities to conduct an investigation as soon as possible and find the killers of our journalist.
We appeal to all the witnesses of what happened with the request to provide information that will help find the criminals . Contact email address : info@vesti.ua.

"Masked" is usually not the right word for "helmeted." Police don't usually need to be "identified" and tracked down. The killers are, implicitly, the allies and agents of the (apparent?) new government, and the case might just be dropped now. It could be said this is a lie by a pro-Y news agency. Then, a reported for a pro-Y agency was killed. Hm. Maybe by the government did it to make the "extremists" look bad? Then, it's acknowledged at least that the extremists look bad. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:12, 24 February 2014 (UTC)


Via RT: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 06:40, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Tuesday, February 25 – 05:42 GMT:
The suspected shooter of Ukrainian journalist Vyacheslav Veremyi, of the local Vesti newspaper, has been arrested, reported the paper, quoting MP Pyotr Poroshenko.
Veremyi died of a gunshot wound in the chest after masked men attacked him last Tuesday on the way home in Mikhailovskaya Street in central Kiev.
Ah! They got an ID and an arrest? I'm curious about the details, considering the management change and all. Shot on the way home they say. That's consistent with targeting. I was wondering if he was out investigating them at the time and saw something they didn't want reported. But maybe his job is unrelated. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:26, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
Vesti.au report on it (Google Translates poorly) "On Wednesday evening (in a place, attackers) with bats attacked Vyacheslav Veremyya and IT specialist editorial Alexei Lыmarenko ." Another line says "Machine -?- and -?- -?- grenades. Taxi Driver and Alexei -?- of cars and -?- -?-" Needs work. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:43, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Those curious about how this story progresses could follow this Vesti page for all articles about him (are there 27 already? and that's with none since the 27th? What happened after that?) I'll check the most recent:

Today , February 27 , nine days after the death of our journalist Vyacheslav Veremei . In fact there is not suspected , but the investigation is conducted , so staff of the newspaper "Vesti" very much hopes that the perpetrators will be found and punished . As it turned out , at the crossroads of Big Zhitomir and Vladimir on the night of 18 on February 19 killed another man - Vitaly Vasiltsov - and at least one was injured . We carefully collect all the video and witness the bloody night and we are grateful to everyone who will tell us something about those events .

It goes into "events at the crossroads," with Zytomir and other places mentioned (to, from, etc. unclear) Local police had no role - being unarmed, they simply stayed away when a huge crowd of thugs rolled up in black SUVs. They blocked the road, attacked various cars, throwing grenades in after smashing windows (?).

This crowd was raging about 11 pm to 4 am. They threw stun grenades toward maydanovtsev , gathered at St. Michael's Square . Constantly heard the queue from a Kalashnikov . The bandits stopped cars, beat them and threw grenades . Passed only trolleys and ambulances . Also beat people passing by . lso beat people passing by . Bandits led by a few people who pointed out to beat anyone who does not beat in what car to throw grenades.

A woman named Eugenia gave this account of the attack on Vyacheslav:

In the taxi that drove Vyacheslav , threw stun grenades . Firing of weapons was constant . Slavik in a gray jacket tried to escape in our direction , but three men knocked him down and beaten with metal pipes . Fourth supervised . Slavik got up again , they knocked him down and beat him with all his strength . Finally released him , he ran to us, but along the way began to lose consciousness and fell right at the front wheel of our cars , "- she said. (video still - different video? - same video as the 2nd)
Eugenia and her husband jumped out of the car and tried to help Slavik . " He said," I am a journalist ... I was beaten ... I can not breathe , "- says Eugene. Slavik asked to turn it on its side , because it was easier. "I undid the zipper on his blue sweater , someone brought water, I washed the blood from his forehead . I kept saying to him: " Do not fall asleep , do not close your eyes ." Ten minutes he looked at me with his blue-gray eyes . I still see them. In the right eye, he shone a whistle , maybe when they smash the car , it got there , "- says Eugene.
Ten minutes later there was an ambulance. The car was another wounded , but not so hard. So the guy was replaced on a stretcher Slavik . Doctors put him on the neck collar safety , loaded into the car. First ten minutes standing , and then went .

So, apparently, he was not shot? The initial report that his killer was captured turns out to be untrue also, or perhaps more likely, was deemed untrue after that person was mysteriously released.

Recently lawmaker Poroshenko said Vyacheslav Veremei killer arrested , but it is not. The theme of Avakov ( В тему Аваков ) denied detention killer Vyacheslav Veremei. As said, " Vesti " Attorney General Oleg Mahnitsky suspects yet (at large). The investigation of all crimes resonance leads Attorney General's Office in conjunction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs .

--Caustic Logic (talk) 13:41, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Shooting Medics

At 2:22 local time, BBC records, Erin Alexis tweeted: "Situation in #Ukraine horrifying. Reports of #doctors being shot by snipers as they care for the wounded. Terrible." [8] We can see some of this. In the massacre scene, 41-min video, there's a team of medics in full orange tending to a man in drab (militant/activist) clothes downed on the sidewalk (26:05). One of them must have been shot (not shown) At 26:40 they're carrying a different person down to the hotel, and they're in the same all-orange as the rest. Less obvious medics/helpers in street clothes with shields are also hit, repeatedly, in this video. That sniper was trying to behave badly, just to be wicked.

Ukraine Olesya 1.png

These shots are generally fatal, but there's another more famous case in which the victim -Olesya Zhukovska, age 21 - survived. NY Daily News for example published her dramatic story of being shot in the neck by a sniper on the 20th, tweeting "I am dying." As that report explains:

Zhukovska was injured Thursday morning, when government snipers began firing at protesters on Independence Square, known as Maidan. She said she was shot as she walked around the camp with several friends. She became disoriented and thought that a grenade had exploded near her.“And then they told me: ‘Sweetheart, a sniper has shot you,”’Zhukovska recalled. “Then I looked at my hands and they were covered in blood, and I said, that’s it, I am dying.”

The inset image accompanied some reports - that's her nursing the wound. That round metal object in the background looks more like something on the Maidan than in the main sniper zone - presumably this is not far from where she was hit, but that's relative. The original tweet, "Я вмираю" - sent 12:44 PM local time. This is the time window of sniper massacre, but it sounds more like she was on the Maidan than that zone. She cannot be seen in that area (that I caught) with that distinctive medic-stamped white coat. So if this was a sniper attack, it was apparently from a different room in the hotel, or a different building, than that fire. For what it's worth, she later showed the scar in this photo - one small round scab on her cheek, a reddened patch above that, and a curving slice, stitched up, down her neck. To me, it looks more like her first impression was right. A grenade behind her had one fragment slice this flap of skin forward as it passed. But maybe that's just where they cut in to remove the bullet? --Caustic Logic (talk) 02:42, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Nah, I can't see all that fuzzy collar and scarf stuff being "down" enough to allow that. Considering she's a medic, hit in the neck, not just anywhere, at the time snipers were shooting to kill and shooting medics - whatever the scar says, otherwise I would guess she was hit by a sniper. --Caustic Logic (talk) 03:32, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Patterns

First pass, general: Feb. 18 had the most interesting shootings and deaths, while the 20th had the greatest number and randomness. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:12, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Cops Killed Early: The interesting day, the 18th ... note the 11 killed policemen have no death dates. They are, or tend to be, the 18th. It's not clear of the listed 11 is the whole list of slain police officers. The bulk of riots on the 20th injured, burned, beat, and captured police in huge numbers. It's hard to imagine no more getting killed, but this RT report of the 19th suggests only one of these 11 died after that first night:

Twenty-six people were killed overnight in the most violent clashes yet to have occurred between security forces and protesters since the opposition took to the streets of Kiev in November 2013. Ten of the casualties are Ukrainian police officers, who died of gunshot wounds, as did the rest of the victims, the Interior Ministry reported.

Further, he explained it must be "violent protesters" since “police officers and interior troops do not use fire arms. Law enforcers are only using non-lethal weapons." This was apparently true, at least until they were coming under fire like this. On the 19th, apparently, it was decided police would again be armed and authorized to fire in self-defense. Trapped! If false-flag provocateur snipers were responsible for crimes pinned on the state, the allegation part could not work on the 18th nearly as well as it did on the 20th. With this cop-killing provocation, it seems, guns were tricked into the authorities' hands, and just as quickly, those guns were blamed for beautiful young people punctured on the Maidan, just as planned.--Caustic Logic (talk) 13:17, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Urs has done some more digging and found descriptions for the videos showing burning busses and intimidated passengers - those were apparently counter-protesters from Crimea on their way home on the 20th. Even more interesting is a (German) translation of an interview in a video already deleted (youtube account deleted due to "several reports" of copyright issues, of course). Counter-protesters who drove to Kyiv on the 17th and arrived in the morning of the 18th for a demonstration in the Mariinsky Park on the other side of the government buildings, maybe 300m east of the lower right corner of your map. They say a huge mob attacked them around 11 am, threw Molotow cocktails, stones, pepper spray etc, and after "the guys from Berkut" tried to protect them, some in the mob started to shoot. The interviewee says s/he saw "5 people killed", unclear if police or counter-protesters. --CE (talk) 12:40, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

The "Protesters"

Nazi Protesters?

Is it just a smear to suggest White Supremacist-types had any significant role in the protests-cum-insurgency? Many have said so, and point to the relative or total absence of their imagery in the events of February 17-20 as suggesting the people that usually come with the images were also absent. But this is far from clear, and in fact that very point, which seems to be true, is actually a possible clue helping form a troubling picture: It could be that Nazi types from Svoboda, Right Sector, etc. were in fact present, in at least the usual numbers for such events, and operating at their usual level of seriousness or higher, and no less central than usual in the events. The other part of that picture is an agreement with other parties that stipulated no Nazi imagery this time - they wanted clean muscle mass. This would have been crucial to the stomping through the state's security forces as happened. All this would likely be delivered in exchange for a larger role in the partition of power afterwards, which one way or another the neo-Nazi parties seem to have gotten. This chilling possibility remains on the table, partly supported, but unproven. Beyond that, only so much can be said at the moment.

Visuals:

Ukraine WP Cross 1.png

These are the two known neo-Nazi symbols spotted so far on the 20th, both in the militant sector pushing up Instytutska towards the Rada.

Left: A Celtic White Power Cross that appeared at the forward front line on Instytutska. A man was apparently just shot in front of it. This panel also contains a red right-pointing arrow, and various letters in red and black. It's seen again at the video's end, retired further towards the rear and the hotel.

Ukraine WP Cross 2.png

Below, right: the same symbol, broken, seen at an unclear spot, apparently nearby. Added letters at the corners include F, C, and 2 unclear characters. The meaning is surely known around. --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:32, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

This video at 1:47 shows a guy walking slowly among the mob holding a clenched right fist salute. Hitler-via-Svoboda style, I think. See #Instytutska Front Lines below for the red-over-black flag of the Fascist Ukranian Insurgent Army of Stepan Bandera, planted at the first front line, closer to the Maidan, under the pedestrian bridge.

These tend to be on the back sides of panels, visible from only inside views like this, for what that's worth. Otherwise, the lack of Nazis showing off their symbols is noteworthy, when it's been a common feature of previous Ukrainian protests. All those who suggest that extra-angry, extra-effective crowd was absent for these events are able to provide no other place they'd be at this crucial time. They would want to be there in the thousands, and if it could be kept from being too obvious, there were others who would like that very much. Besides the "vanguard" on Instytutska where we see the few symbols peeking around the presumptive ban, there are crowds like that in the video above, and also this below (location not yet set), that steamrolled over riot police like the thugs from the movie Romper Stomper, molded into a large, furious, and uber-confident (insurgent) army. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:50, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Update March 8: the original video I embedded here shows the same scene as the other mob video linked above, from two different angled. I just replaced that video with my own, including this footage and parts of a policeman's reaction and a program (BBC Newsnight) on the rise of ultranationalist NOT Nazis afterwards.--Caustic Logic (talk) 11:29, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Allegations:

  • Slate: Russia says the Ukrainian Protesters are Fascists and Nazis are They? This lame article does little but cite another guy who says "Yet it is the Ukrainian regime rather than its opponents that resorts to anti-Semitism, instructing its riot police that the opposition is led by Jews. In other words, the Ukrainian government is telling itself that its opponents are Jews and us that its opponents are Nazis." That does seem to be true, that claims of Jews leading the fibght were lodged. The one side's apparent racism is then used as a stand-in for an argument against Moscow's claim. As if only one side or the other can be anti-Semitic.

In unrelated news: Jews were leading the Maidan protest/fights, according to the Jews themselves and not the lying anti-semitic regime.

  • Times of Israel, Feb. 28: Israeli militia commander fights to protect Kiev "Delta, a Ukrainian-born former IDF soldier, heads a force of 40 men and women, most of whom are not Jewish, against gov’t forces" Odd story - he held the mob back at one point from torching a police station and/or taking their guns - using diplomacy that earned "Delta" and his team the nickname "blue helmets".
“It’s ********. I never saw any expression of anti-Semitism during the protests, and the claims to the contrary were part of the reason I joined the movement. We’re trying to show that Jews care,” he said. Photo of Delta supposedly as he appeared in fighting. How can they be Nazis, if they're fighting alongside Jews, and not brandishing Swastikas? --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:01, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Michel Chossudovsky, Global Reasearch, March 3: Ukraine: Israeli Special Forces Unit under Neo-Nazi Command Involved in Maidan Riots Citing more details from an original JTA report, this points out "Delta" was in the notorious Givati brigade, had several IDF people with him, five total. "The Maidan “Street fighting unit” under Delta’s command was involved in confronting government forces." That puts him in the "vanguard," perhaps up the Instytutska, where the few clear signs did appear. Or he's being truthful, which suggests he was elsewhere. Delta also adds that he was assigned to work with and take orders from the Nazi-tinged Svoboda party's militant wing, but he denies the Nazi part, sort of, but doesn't like them anyway:

“I don’t belong [to Svoboda], but I take orders from their team. They know I’m Israeli, Jewish and an ex-IDF soldier. They call me ‘brother,’” he said. “What they’re saying about Svoboda is exaggerated, I know this for a fact. I don’t like them because they’re inconsistent, not because of [any] anti-Semitism issue.”

So ... apparently it was kind of complex. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:01, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Armed Protesters

Here's one participant offering an assessment of their limited gun situation (limited hangout? from LA Times, Feb 20):

"Some of the protesters here had their officially registered hunting rifles with them, and they started shooting back," said Nikolay Mosiyenko, a 46-year-old retired lieutenant colonel of the Ukraine Armed Forces, who joined the protest at its outset last fall.

Of course, they were planning a hunting trip afterwards, never intending to shoot people, during protests in the capitol. Because that would void the legality (in spirit anyway) of them being "hunting rifles."

"If that was the idea of Yanukovich's anti-terrorist operation, I must say, it failed utterly," Mosiyenko said. "He never got the backing of the army in a situation when the police can no longer cope." Mosiyenko was referring to a government warning Wednesday that it was undertaking an "anti-terrorist operation" to end the protests...

That's an astute assessment. He's quite the tactician, for a simple protester-hunter. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:27, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

There's a lot of pictures of armed protesters, wielding a variety of weapons, from pneumatic guns and pistols up to hunting rifles and even automatic guns. [4] --Emes (talk) 22:38, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Good call. I've seen that post at Moon of Alabama, it's on the list of things to add. For the purpose at hand, what they had on the 18th to 20th is most relevant, while many or all of these pictures are from past events. It shows they've been "piece-full" protesters in the past, but that doesn't rule out a change here - which I might see, actually. The 10 shot cops were by murky men some will call Russians, and the unseen snipers, the same. There were differences this time besides the scale and audacity, like no Nazi imagery this time (followed pretty closely it seems), and maybe less public guns is one of those. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:36, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Aside from whatever guns they brought and used, the "peaceful protesters" can be seen using the following weapons, from the 18th to 20th. Each was used to its utmost potential, with unrelenting fury, causing serious injury and a few deaths to mostly gun-free police, as well as at least one civilian supporter of the government who died: - Cobblestones and rocks - Bats and clubs - medieval maces or, rather, flails - molotov cocktails, right on policemen's heads - Feet and fists --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:36, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Snipers

The Telegraph reported Feb. 20 that video "purporting to show snipers from the Ukrainian security forces shooting at protesters from behind rows of sandbags" matched protester claims and trumped the government claim that: "Police said a sniper perched on a hotel roof had injured 20 officers with live ammunition fire." There aren't many hotels around where shooting came from. This must be the protester-held Ukraina. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:11, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

I suppose the BBC thing should go here - or all this together under the hotel. Yes. Later. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:11, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Mapping the Events

Ukraine KYIV Map Central.png

The yellow circle by the October Palace is the big "rotary phone dial" clock from early in the 40-minute video. 4:001:15 (at video's start) if accurate. The action then runes southeast up the Instyutska towards the apparent seat of Ukraine's government. Behind them, the Maidan, overlooked by the hotel (among other things) where protesters were shot dead on the 20th. Thanks to CE for initial tips and Wikimpaia markings. When we identify areas of interest in a broader or narrower zone, different maps might be made. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:07, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Updates (for next version) - "Government building" is where the ministries work. Parliament is behind/north of that. To the south, presidential administration, to the SE, Regions party HQ, torched with a worker apparently murdered. Isn't it odd how as soon as the Nazi hordes get to this vital area, parliament can suddenly vote differently (is the roster full or didn't a lot of members feel compelled to run away?), dismiss and appoint and re-jigger whatever they want? It's as if this Nazi mob were a bunch of knights, saving the princess of Ukrainian democracy held prisoner by some dragon (the law on the land) they had to slay to set her free. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:21, 27 February 2014 (UTC)
The Ukraine hotel is where Maidan snipers were said to be stationed. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 23:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
Yes indeed, and by both sides. Other than up the Instyutska, it's the only place they're mentioned shooting from. The one going up the street had ther shields up against fire from the SE. So ... if the snipers at the hotel were on the government side, why did they never shoot those guys in the friggin back? All killed were by luck shots to the head and chest. And if that's because the snipers there were rebel ones, then ... well, the people at the Maidan too were reported getting shot with snipers (still parsing reports) --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:16, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

The long 40-minute video shows the militants in the stretch between the hotel and what must be the metro station, with the circular plaza. The final line they're holding there, furthest point we see, is at its far edge, about at the "n" in Instytutska. That's just over 100 meters from the government center. I don't think they show what, if anything, happened next. Did the people who torched the Regions HQ come from the other side, or what it these guys, after they finished busting through? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:12, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

There's talk of bodies lined up at a McDonalds "restaurant" at the square. I've finally figured out where it is. There's a video showing that scene, and the surrounding buildings, including what seems a whole-building, multi-story McDonalds, next to a hotel, at what looks like the Maidan's north end. Indeed, the building (a nib visible in the upper left of the above map) is Sofiyska vulytsya on Wikimapia, part McDonald's, part apartment building. The bodies are actually at a small vendor trailer, Coca-Cola branded, among all the red umbrellas there. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:33, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Good job, I had been looking for it without success. That's a long distance from Hotel Ukraine. I looked up what the victim's friend said in the Lviv article:
Bogdan [...] was killed [...] by a sniper’s bullet to the neck. Pavlo [...] was with him as the firing started on Independence Square on Wednesday morning. He ran back to fetch a shield and the two were separated. He only found his friend a few hours later among 13 bodies outside a McDonalds.
Seems like those are victims shot on Maidan itself and collected at that near-McDonalds place. Shot in "the morning", which isn't how one would describe close to 1 pm. The Conservatory is much closer to that part of Maidan (and has free shooting lines to October Palace). I still suspect there is some confusion going on with Conservatory/Philharmony. --CE (talk) 14:21, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
Also Wednesday would be the 19th I think. Not even the same day. But for there to be 13 bodies ... Hm, not sure. Some number died the 19th. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:38, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
Oh yes, good catch, Wednesday was the 19th. I'm pretty sure the other reports about 13 dead at McDonalds/a Hotel were from the 20th. That would have made more news a day before. Hm. Whatever, still gotta check those SPIEGEL tickers. --CE (talk) 15:48, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
Might mean Thursday. Hm, Bogdan, the lecturer? Pravda list has no death date. In English letters, few sources mention him besides us. This site specifies Died February 20, 2014. "Details of the death of Bogdan currently unknown. Body with gunshot wound located in Michael’s Cathedral." I am still up due to forum anger earlier (did catch your msg, yeah I had that wrong I guess) and mad dancing in the day's middle. But now getting the head pains and might slepp :) --Caustic Logic (talk) 16:05, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Maidan

Here is a fresh video from the center of Maidan. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 01:54, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Hotel Ukraine

Hotel Ukraine (Ukraina) towers over the Maidan's southeast end, as well as over the area of the sniper massacre on Instytutska street. As mid-day, the time of the massacre, at latest, the hotel was under protester/insurgent control, and patrolled by armed men looking for snipers. Also, the most deadly and criminal of the sniper fire seen on video seemingly comes from the hotel (see #Shooting Directions below). --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:37, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

There are good panorama views of the Maidan area on the Hotel Ukraine web page. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 20:40, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

The Saker says:

...the CIA station in Kiev who, according to many reports, is basically running the revolutionary government from the 4th floor of a building in central Kiev.

The building in central Kiev would naturally be Hotel Ukraine right next to Maidan. Incidentally, the 3rd floor is occupied by the NATO infowar office, the Ukraine Crisis Media Center. It would be logical to have the infowar operation right below the military operations. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 17:33, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Shooting from the hotel

Benjamin Bidder Kollege Gathmann vom "Ukraina": People dying next to "Hotel Ukraina", shot by snipers. Protestors with guns on 14th floor. #euromaidan" (this will be the smaller portion in the middle, whichever floors are above 12) (from German) Apparently cited: Moritz Gathmann, in this Tagesspiegel article (from German) "Due to the upper floors of the hotel , meanwhile, draw with pistols and rifles armed Maidan activists , looking for snipers that shoot supposedly still one room of the hotel on the people . From the 14th Stock (floor) shoot the activists in the direction of the barricade on the Institutska Street, where they suspect more police snipers . Their answer promptly follows : One shot, one splintered glass , luckily no one is hurt." The Telegraph reported "Police said a sniper perched on a hotel roof had injured 20 officers with live ammunition fire." An RT video shows some shooting by armed insurgents from a hotel window, apparently with a low-power air rifle.

BBC's timeline reports "Kateryna Kruk, The Guardian tweets: "Snipers are shooting from from Hotel Ukraina and Instytutsjka, more dead around" Also: "One of the three top opposition leaders in Ukraine - Arseniy Yatsenyuk - says snipers are firing at protesters from the Ukraina hotel, which dominates Independence Square." It was from the hotel's 11th floor that, according to BBC reported Gabriel Gatehouse, a sniper wearing "one of the protesters' green helmets" fired a single shot down to the October Palace grounds at about sunset (5:24). This seems to be the shot that fatally hit the day's last sniper victim in the neck. (see #October Palace Victims.)

There was also clearly shooting at the hotel. BBC's Duncan Crawford took a photo of bullet holes to his window at the "back" of the hotel. The back (southeast) face has bullet holes in the brick. There may be more than standard defensive fire at work; several journalists on less clear sides of the hotel report firing on them though windows. Alexey Yaroshevsky, RT - Matt McGarry - Golineh Atai: "First time no live interviews on the balcony. Who shoots at journalist?" (from German) - Vera Kämper: "Snipers apparently shoot at anyone who shows up at the windows of the Hotel Ukraina. Background: it is evident that armed opposition are in the hotel." (from German).

Following the sunset shooting, by over three hours, there was a reported search of the hotel for a suspected (non-opposition) sniper (see timeline, after the massacre). A total of two snipers were reportedly caught, by Euromaidan insurgents, on this day. One was taken in by the time of a 1:15 PM tweet just as the shooting at the hotel stopped, and another was captured on the 10th floor, opposition sources said the following day. (see #One O'Clock Sniper below). Despite all this, the first comprehensive reports of sniper fire, from August 21, 24, and 26, all cite numerous firing directions that all exclude the hotel. Only by March 5 was there a sign investigators with the Kiev Cabal/new government were including the hotel among sniper perches to study (again, see #Shooting Directions below). --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:37, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Conservatory

This larger building next to the hotel was set on fire on the 20th, and has an ambiguous record of control. * Maidan Translators says it was under police control, but someone was treating wounded there, and the police tried to burn it, to trick the protesters into stopping the fire, so they could shoot those heroes.

As yet there is no conclusive information as to who fired the first live shots. Some reports say that the first live shots were fired from the roof of the Conservatory, which was behind the law enforcement cordons. Since the Conservatory lies behind police lines, it would have been extremely difficult for protesters to take firing positions there. This gives ground to the assumption that the killing shots were a purposeful provocation by government forces. Another report says clashes were renewed when Berkut started throwing Molotov cocktails and/or grenades at the Conservatory. As protesters moved to put out the fires, snipers started shooting – at first, from the police lines, then from behind them.[6]


In contrast, the people who ran the police had no problem with that claim - the first shot came from there, and protesters ran it. RT reported on the 20th:

On February 20, from the windows of Kiev conservatory, unknown gunmen opened fire at law-enforcement officials. Aiming to save lives and the health of the security forces, it was decided to relocate the troops to safer spots and according to the current legislation, to use firearms as self-defense.

Later, former SBU chief Aleksandr Yakimenko told RT about what sounds like the same building, but called the Philharmonic:

AY: First shots were fired from the Philharmonic building. Maidan Commandant Parubiy was in charge of the building. On February 20, this building was used as a base by the snipers and people with automatic weapons. They basically covered those who were attacking the demoralized policemen running in panic, hunted down like animals. They were followed by armed people with different kinds of weapons. At that point, somebody opened fire at those who attacked the police, and some of them were killed. All this fire was coming from the Philharmonic building. After this first round of fire, about 20 people came out of this building – this was witnessed by many. These people wore special combat clothes and carried sniper rifle cases, as well as AKMs with scopes. There were witnesses, and not just our operatives, but also Maidan activists from Svoboda, Right Sector, Batkivshchyna, and UDAR.
The snipers split into two groups – 10 men each. The Security Service lost track of one of the groups. The other group took a position at the Ukraine hotel. Killings continued. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:21, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

BBC has a story about a Sergei who confesses to them to have been one of the snipers in the conservatory. He got a rifle from a shadowy ex-military guy who prepared him for the events and somehow he ended up "defending himself" by sniping at the police from inside the building, and now is really sorry about that, so sorry that he has to tell it to the BBC. Through the story Parubiy is allowed to blame Russia and play the caring "Commandant of Maidan". Almost seems like the whole thing is a limited hangout to whitewash Parubiy. Maybe because of the book of the former prime minister? Must take a look at what he says. --CE (talk) 20:16, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Trade Unions Building

See also Kiev Trade Union Building fire

Via Vladimir Suchan: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 17:30, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Vitaliy Churkin at the UN General Assembly today: The headquarters of the Maidan was in the seized building of the Trade Unions. At the 7th floor of the Maidan headquarters there was also constantly a crisis command of the US Embassy. Maidan snipers used the same building as one of their key firing positions when they used deadly fire both against the police and the Maidan protesters." (around 3:00 into the speech).
Churkin's statement with English translation at un.org Looks like they got even less "yes" for their resolution than for the Syria ones. --CE (talk) 17:51, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

February 16th: Ukrainian pro-EU fascists take out a dead body in the package from the Palace of Trade Unions. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 12:48, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Instytutska Front Lines

Ukraine Frontline PedBridge.png

Palace Bridge: The first front-line on the push down that red line was at the pedestrian bridge between the Maidan and the October palace. north of that seems to be, as of noon, part of the insurgent-held Maidan at large. The long video, at its start, shows people and supplies packed densely on the street up to and beneath the bridge, but stopping cleanly at its far edge. Past there, the people are thinner and busier, inching forward behind shields, sometimes being shot, dragging debris and tires for the next front line, or dragging back wounded. This is not an area of protest, but of some militant endeavor. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:57, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Note in the inset image (from RT raw video feed, August 20) the red-over-black flag planted here. As CE identified it above, this seems to be the WWII-era flaf of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army of Fascist-Nazi-nationalist Ukrainian hero (to some) Stepan Bandera (see UIA/UPA Wikipedia page). --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:47, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Metro Station: The furthest front line that's visually established is at the far edge of the metro station, just over 100 meters from the edge of the government compound (ahead and to the left in the composite view below, stitched from portions of the 40-minute video. From right to left, note: the round terminal of the station, a White Power Celtic cross, the one and only such neo-Nazi symbol that ACLOS has spotted so far on February 20. The rest of a row of shields, beynd which is one further barricade of various junk that's not yet adequate. At the end of the long video (around 40:30) the men are draggind a burned-out bus up the street, presumably to beef up that front line. But after this, videos of this front and the government's nerve center just beyond get thinner to perhaps non-existent. Time of this establishment: if the big clock by the bridge is accurate, the long video starts at 12:15 PM (see 0:01, and at 5:40 note it's 12:21). So 40 minutes after the start, minus unknown edits/gaps, means it ends no earlier than 12:55 PM, likely a bit afterwards - 1:30-ish sounds right. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:57, 2 March 2014 (UTC) Ukraine Metro Frontline Pan.png

Shooting Directions

This is what's interesting. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:37, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Or, rather, a concept that's valid except where it dramatically doesn't apply. This graphic is not accurate, but a start to the discussion below leading that way. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:38, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Ukraine Shooting Directions.png

Here's a new video analysis of the guys filmed from behind who I said were also shot from behind, Petri disagreed and you apparently as well. That's right behind the Hotel Ukraine and both filming and shooting comes from the Hotel, I'm now more convinced than before (which doesn't mean there's no additional shooting from the direction they are advancing to). He has footage from the other side of Instytuska that makes it even more clear. --CE (talk) 20:05, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

This does need re-visiting. I was agreeing with you on the bullet direction, just not the significance. My best guess is it was a fragment on a ricochet track. Before I check this video (and it is playing here, hooray) my take has been that no significant fire came at the "unarmed activists" from behind, or they'd be shielding themselves from it, which you never see. There might be fore towards security forces, or towards hippies on the Maidan, but not likely their own white power foot soldiers here. My basic thought could even survive one or two pot-shots on their own side, just to blame the "regime" or to take out a guy someone doesn't like. But the first seems a stupid and useless thing to do and the second is pure imagination. Shooting from behind at these insurgents will, to most, say it was Berkut in the hotel. But, I will see what it says... --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:07, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Obviously, my analysis was premature. The video is quite good. The first example of the kid around 13:00 in the raw video, is especially clear. He almost seems to see the gun pointed at him, starts rising, as if to run away, gets shot. Can't tell where he was hit, but he lived at least initially - I wonder if he ever talked? The blue spray seems strange. I can still see both directions. There's a gap, and ricochet off the tree. It seems he and the tree and his shield are all hit - the shield has two new dents afterwards, can't tell which way. Next, I'll check the person shot in green, and the part towards the end, WTH? All those right against the wall, suddenly falling? That's spooky.
Okay, if it's like this, people will just say somehow the Berkut were still in the hotel. But all these people weren't told that. They think the hotel has their back, and with some reason I'm sure. They never seem to get the idea the fire is coming from behind, or could be. They may just keep presuming the Berkut have a slightly different angle now, or their shield slipped ... I wonder how many wondered as they lay there that came from my side, didn't it?" I still think they wouldn't shoot useful militants, but it's not clear what these people are doing anyway, or who they are. Were some expendable hippie types recruited to help out here in the early part? --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:49, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
HOW did we all miss all these other segments? CE, you caught the bark chipping. Good. This video maker pol27 maybe, way ahead of us. And you caught that too. Good. Considering, that tree shot is looking less like a fluke, and you were calling that. I disagree here with the rolling guy. I enhanced that ricochet from ahead. But, the other important spots I agree with are at 16:42 and after in the long video. Note here a cut in the video, and as I've seen before and always looks bad, the next shots comes right as the camera resumes (if this is edited later, moot point).
  • At 16:45 is the sequence at the end of the analysis video - one man behind that low wall, then another, fall as they're hit. More then moving shields, this wall sets the line of fire to, at best, to their left, or about at the edge of the insurrgent-held October Palace complex (or on such a line). Otherwise, the range of fire excludes the Berkut positions ahead, and includes of course the hotel. From how they fall, I can't say what direction.
  • The man in green, previously on trips back and forth to help load and then shield the dead, is an expert in shielding against fire from thataway. He's been crouching after another run, not even behind the wall but by it. As the two are shot next to him, he stands and runs, shield up the "correct" way but no good. He's hit about four steps into it. I was seeing two different motions, each consistent with a different angle. But the overall spin as he falls suggests a shot from behind/the hotel, and also the force of the shot seems to halt his stride, suggesting it came from about where he was running to (safety, he thought). He's been hit in the left side near the heart, apparently in the back/side. It seems designed to be fatal. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:01, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
I think he also gets shot in the left leg. It seems like these guys (him and the boy anyway) are being hit not with single sniper rounds, but volleys of semi-automatic fire. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:38, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
Yeah, this guy shoots to kill. There are more good analysis around by now. Did you see the German dubbed one I posted Monday (Russian/Ukrainian(?) original here)? This has also very interesting footage you will mostly understand without the narration. That makes it absolutely clear that our controversy captioned guys with yellow bands are not Right Sektor in disguise, but special forces like Petri was 100% sure. It has footage from the 19th where they guard the October Palace and on the 20th how they were attacked from the north-west, retreated with several injured/dead (best seen towards the end of the video) to the position were they famously are seen, and then shoot at the advancing guys with their shields - but they don't aim at the people, there are no hits, they just make them retreat (6:15 following). Those scenes also explain why the guys with their shields dare to advance in the first place, because up at the October Palace, their armed comrades take up the special forces. Video has also footage from inside the Hotel, from the entrance which was quite obviously controlled by the "people protectors", shows more guys with rifles (or are these "air guns"), etc. --CE (talk) 14:27, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
This was the putsch video? It didn't play or save before. Now I have it. The hotel footage - did you see what they were being rushed into on the ground floor? The elevator, with rifles. Or air rifles, urgently needing elevated. Time: I think 12:30 or so. Will check more and type less for a bit --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:44, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

The first victim we see get shot here is the boy (at least five people are down before it starts rolling). He starts with no shield, until another guy hands him one. Within seconds of having it up, he's ironically shot, apparently from the direction he wasn't shielded. But just to be clear, I wanted to show the dents. At the bottom is the one there before. Higher up, two dents appear as the boy's hit. Or am I just missing them before? Do we think these are punched out, from the hotel direction? I'm not sure how to read it, but it seems the other way around to me, despite the other clues. - --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:38, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

But I note in analysis there's a distinct, circular, light patch on the tree for just a moment - that must be sunlight off the shield, perhaps where the new dent shines it up - which fits with a hotel direction or, perhaps, the ground between, and further to the kid's left. That's numerous hits, BTW, all at once. At least two to hit his and double-ding the shield. That suggests automatic/semi, not a sniper rifle, correct? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:57, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Ukraine Snipers shield dents.png

Alleged Shooting Directions

Ukraine shooting directions 2.png

Next, we get more specific alleged directions for security fire. AP March 7:

On Wednesday, Prosecutor General Oleh Makhntisky said officials have found sniper bullet casings on the National Bank building a few hundred yards up the hill from Maidan, the square that became the center and the symbol of the anti-government protests. He said investigators have confirmed snipers also fired from the Hotel Ukraine, directly on the square, and the House of Chimeras, an official residence next to the presidential administration building. [4]
I just realized Vultysya means street, and named that building on Bank Street for the street. Rather, when I update the map, it will be the address B.V. 1/10, no better name. Listed as apartment building. Snipers can rent by the hour? --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:44, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

These spots are mapped in the inset image. The southern one seems to have a tall building blocking the line of fire. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:10, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Read "hotel, directly on the square" not "fired directly on the square from the hotel." I was confused at first. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:57, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Previously, BBC's Gabriel Gatehous went to Kiev February 25 with "British forensic experts" who were show bullet holes, building tops, and alleged government orders to make case for four sniper positions (aside from the October palace, irrelevant to the shooting massacre).

Ukraine Shooting Directions BBC.png

He was told about no fire coming from the hotel, only towardas it, from a total of four locations. These, he says at 2:30, included a barricade I haven't seen, but that must be just beyond the sandbag line at the metro station. That spot was supported by new video of police there with guns pointing out (at some point). The other sniper nests, he was told, three were in the tall buildings just behind that - the National Bank (a balcony was singled out, not the roof), the corner tower of what Wikimpaia says is Bankova Vulytsa, across the street, and the fourth spot unclear - maybe the national's roof. No house of chimeras mention either. These lines are added to the map now in orange, for six alleged firing directions, only one of which really seems to matter. [2]

Can anyone help me confirm if the earlier BBC report I cited with the shooter in a green helmet was also filed by Mr. Gatehouse? Some sources say that, no one else is named. Ran out of time. This would be fascinating. He saw shooting by a rebel (sniper, perhaps not) from the hotel. He was semi-famously on the record about it. Deadly fire on protesters, from there, was reported that day. And here he comes (back?) five days later with experts and questions, and it's not even on the list of places firing came from. Within days, by its sheer obviousness if nothing else, the hotel then re-appeared as an "also shot from." One can only wonder, unless one asks, if Mr. Gatehouse finds that all as baffling or troubling as he should. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:23, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
One more interesting twist. Gatehouse apparently was not famous for reporting that green helmet. His Feb. 20 report was held back a week, only released on the BBC site Feb. 28. It's as if he didn't want to taint things by making the hotel seem suspicious. If so, excellent. On the 24th/25th the opposition illustrated all on their own that the hotel was suspicious, failing to mention it when he and the experts and the activists put their heads together. Then he went ahead and released that video, in an article specifying (rightly or wrongly) they came "under sniper fire." And that will be one underpinning of the shift back to acknowledging the hotel sniper(s), with all these shifting stories. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:29, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Also shown on the map: green lines from a Feb. 21 Reuters report citing a witness on the ground, and another who's interesting: a former Berkut sniper, who watched the whole thing from the Hotel, and saw or mentioned no fire from it. Between them, they pointed to the roof of the Metro station, "government headquarters," and "higher ground near the October Palace." [1] (see below, #Visual and Witness Angles.) Ukraine Channel 5 (TCN) apparently aired a program on Feb. 25 or 26 about the snipers. I tried to find it on the channel's Youtube page, but it only seems to go back two weeks to mid-March, and I saw no re-posts of what I wanted - the show from which stills were taken for this Flickr photostream: "Ukraine MBA Col. Asavelyuk & His Snipers," images taken Feb. 26. It exposes by face and name, and ID card, the supposed leader of the Berkut sniper murderers, perhaps in hopes a lynch mob is able to use that info ... It also shows where these snipers fired from: two locations, added to the map in yellow: the Ministries headquarters (same place, apparently, Reuters heard about), and the smaller Ministers' club nearby, a spot no one else has mentioned yet. This makes at least ten distinct shooting directions alleged so far. Most sources cite 2-3 total. --Caustic Logic (talk) 08:56, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Physical Shooting Marks

Start: this is some of what needs to be mentioned/covered here:--Caustic Logic (talk) 12:33, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

  • The BBC Feb. 24 'investigation' - marks to tree and pole bu October Palace, pole hole at metro station to the the bank balcony - these are taken as proving government snipers in those positions. But the holes, especially the latter one, could be fake like the square bullet hole in the metal shield activists showed...
  • The Vorontsov study and its findings (later, when we can make sense of it)
  • anything else.


Visual and Witness Angles

Ukraine Fire trajectory 1.png

Here's an image I made from compositing several frames, at about 16:08 in the 41-minute video. It shows a hot round hitting that pole and bouncing back in fragments. It's hard to be totally sure what angle this is, but it appear much too oblique, traveling across the camera's view, or from too far north, to fit with any of the six directions identified above - approximately from the ten o'clock position relative to the Instytutska. Is this a seventh direction? Is it where the guy chasing the Berkut wound up, before taking up position ahead of these people he's helping to pin down? --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:14, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

The March 7 AP article talks to "One of the victims of the snipers" - Alexander Tonskikh, age 57. "He told AP that at around 10 a.m. on Feb. 20, he and dozens of opposition fighters moved south out of the main battleground on Maidan." He's apparently working from GMT time, and rounding down, or the writer perhaps added the time. It seems to be about 12:30 they started. Or, he qwasn't there and used news reports with GMT times to make up the story. The interview must be by phone or maybe Skype - the two contributing reporters are at the UN and in Estonia. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:10, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

In an instant, he said snipers began firing from at least two different directions, from what seemed to be the rooftops of government buildings, between 200 and 300 yards away.
He said dozens of people were "mowed down like grass" as he and others crouched behind a waist-high stone wall, holding wooden clubs and metal riot shields.
At least 10 people, he said, were killed instantly, and many others wounded. The bodies piled up on top of each other like fallen tree branches.
Shooting then began from a third direction, he said. As he crouched with his back to a tree, he was hit by a bullet that entered his right arm, went through his right side, punctured his lung and lodged just below his heart. He then lost consciousness. [4] --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:10, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
That's an odd-sounding scenario, but there is one guy on video, leaning against part of a tree, who's shot from behind/the right. See 2:43 video, at 1:23. In fact, the angle may not line up with the hotel, or any direction yet identified. More like due west to the hotel's northwest. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:41, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

So now they're saying all shooting directions were used, all by the alleged Russian villains. Three six directions alleged, with only one apparently visible, audible, or fatal (to any real degree). And that's the hotel. These shots we hear, an expert should say but they don't sound 250-350 meters distant. And then there's the question of how the snipers stopped. The hotel's app. single sniper was reported caught at 1:15 PM (I expect they'll finally mention him again soon, and he's a Russian guest of the real government). [6] They don't say where, but of the three spots, the hotel is the only one the rebels operated. At this point, consistent with their story, the shooting from the hotel stopped. We don't know if the other locales stopped, because they seem to have no effect. All deadly shooting seems to stop once they decided the hotel was done (not 100% sure, but the 41-min. video has visible shootings where victims fall, for 15 minutes with some edits, from 12:00-27:00, with all but 3 visible shootings between 12 and 17:00 - he petered off before getting caught). --Caustic Logic (talk) 02:05, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

While the hotel fire seems most deadly, there are other directions clearly in play here. Shooting from the forward angles, fired by whoever, seem to be frequent, loud, most of what you hear. This apparently shot down some of the first people, causing the initial pin down, but otherwise it harassed people, mainly, and constantly reinforced to them which way to hold your shield. The hotel fire, in contrast, seems more sporadic - the occasional surprise, not so dense as to make itself obvious. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:46, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

The first thing I looked at, with CE's prodding, was the tree shooting seen at 0:18 in this video, and slowed/zoomed/enhanced by me in this video (holy crap, 652 views?). We all agree that bullet is on a line from behind the activists here, perhaps near the cameraman, who's inside the Hotel Ukraine. And now the significance of that is clearer. I thought, like CE (I think) it comes from the right even of the camera, causing the puff of dust to the left. That would fit with the other lines of fire as I see them. I had a second thought, but visually, that's still how it looks. The only thing is otherwise this shorter video doesn't record the shootings from the hotel. So I wonder if this is one from elsewhere. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:46, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

An early Reuters report heard from "Self-defense groups on the protesters' side" that "at least two snipers, and possible as many as four or five, operating from vantage points on higher ground" were responsible for the massacre in "a small area on the edge of Independence Square" (or rarher "about 300 meters up a steep rise from Independence Square.") Igor Znativ, an artist from Lviv "said he felt there were three snipers at work." It also noted, with no activist support, "Within two hours of the violence starting on Thursday, police issued a statement saying it had been initiated by protesters who had used snipers." [1]

Further firing directions are added by this report:

  • Metro Station: 27-year-old Roman, a former Berkut sniper "who is now part of a self-defense detail at the Hotel Ukraine," spoke to Reuters. "I saw three people fall ... They were shot in the head or neck."
The marksman responsible for the three deaths which Roman saw was located on a roof of a metro station further up the hill, he said. He thus had a clear line of sight down into the protest zone and the sprawling Independence Square, citadel of revolt, beyond. [1]
This is false. The hotel, where this sniper/former sniper worked, would block any line of sight to the Maidan. To the killzone, he would have a clear view, more or less. But we can see no sniper on that roof as people right beneath his imagined position are shot over and over - from the hotel, mainly. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:29, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Conservatory: "Other protesters said snipers had been operating from the roof of Kiev's main musical conservatory and from atop government headquarters." [1]The first is clearly the big music hall on the square, and quite likely what recent allegations refer to as the "philharmonic." "Government headquarters" is not clear, but most likely the large "M" shaped Ministries building by the National Bank - this gets a tentative green line in the above map. The conservatory gets no line, as it can't really have one, to the relevant area. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:29, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Higher Ground by the Palace: The report continues: "Kolya Ververa, from western Ukraine like many of those on the barricades, lost his friend, Roman Tochin, 43, in a burst of firing and believes he was killed by a sniper." (Pravda.ua victim #54 - age 44) "They were over there," he said gesturing to higher ground behind October Palace. "Roman was one of five whom they got." [1] Both this line and the one to "gov. hq" - in green above - could potentially be the visually observed, approximate, blue line between them. This whole direction is the really vague one, but wherever it's from, the fire at least seems real this way. --Caustic Logic (talk) 07:29, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Timeline

I'll start with a BBC timeline. I'm not sure how comprehensive it is - the death toll seems to stop at about 50, when it seems to have finally hit 80+. This covers only 4 hours on the 20th. And there seems to be no one point, like I thought, where 20 protesters - clearly, not militants - on the Maidan were shot at once. Anyway, other sources can be added. Emphasis on guns, control, security situation. Most entries of people saying stuff, etc. left out. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:16, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Are those local times or UK times? It seem they are UK times because I looked up the SPIEGEL livetickers and it seems that their reporting is one hour later, for example the snipers shooting at Hotel Ukraine are reported by BBC at 10:51 and by SPIEGEL at 11:57. Which sounds logical and means that the local time is two hours ahead of the BBC timestamps and one hour ahead of SPIEGEL. On the 18th SPIEGEL has no liveticker but reports about the demonstration in the park I mentioned above, although they make it seems that anti-Government protesters clashed with Berkut, not mentioning the pro-Government/anti-Fascist protesters attacked. SPIEGEL links below (will check that for discrepancies and interesting stuff later) --CE (talk) 14:50, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

It did say GMT, I think, and is either way. Should be done in local. Will be updated soon. --Caustic Logic (talk) 00:23, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

The Interpreter has had extensive and quality (although pro-Maidan biased) looking liveblogs: Feb 18 Feb 19 Feb 20 - source [I20 - note: times are off from one hour on the actual tweets)] Feb 21 Feb 22 Feb 23 --CE (talk) 14:15, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

[BBC] = As it happened: Clashes in central Kiev times corrected to local (+2 hours - also the tweets tend to be behind a further 40-50 minutes each??) [Clock] = time read from the giant clock by the Maidan (presumed acurate) [Trans] - Maidan Translators

I picked one hotel/sniper entry from S20, 10:42 entry. Problem is, it sounds like the 9PM sniper search to be noticed and tweeted by journalists (would be #3 I've noticed) The actual tweet, for me, says 11:26 am, my time, which should 9:26 PM in Kiev. Did they shift this back half a day? --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:44, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Also, it's not off by an even hours but also 44 minutes off (42 after vs. 26 after). BBC's tweet offsets are 40-50 minutes also on my end. What gives? Is it my computer or do you guys see it too? Am I goofing us up somehow? --Caustic Logic (talk) 01:44, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Uhm, for me there is no 10:42 entry. It starts at 11:25. The third entry says 11:32, and the tweet from Kyiv Post also says 11:32 for me. Those tweet things are actual embeds, so it is possible that they show local resp "twitter time", but the times on the SPIEGEL article should be fixed ... and certainly not 50 min offset. Weird. No idea atm and it doesn't make it easier that we just switched to Summer time last night. --CE (talk) 02:16, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Mainly I started this for the sniper massacre of the 20th. In case we cover other times as well, sections.

Can anyone else check these time offsets? BBC, Spiegel, all have these offsets with tweets, at least on my end. Is it my computer clock or something?

Feb. 18-20

)forthcoming, high points?)

Feb. 20

11:21 - Both parliament and cabinet buildings are evacuated, with reports of police surrendering - (BBC Monitoring) [BBC]

11:25 - The BBC's David Stern in Kiev says: ... The sound of the gunfire from Institutskaya street can be heard throughout Independence Square, and makeshift hospitals are littered with casualties and the seriously injured. [BBC]

11:30 - Journalist Christopher Miller in Kiev tweets: "More than 50 captured police led inside the energy building next door to city hall pic.twitter.com/KUKEnERFQU" [BBC]

11:30 - "Dozens of activists are killed in Thursday's confrontation by fire aimed directly at protesters' heads, chests and hearts. Sniper rifles and Kalashnikovs were apparently used," a 5 Kanal TV presenter said. [BBC]

11:38 - The Ukrainian Health Ministry in a statement on Thursday says that 28 people have died and 287 have been hospitalised during two days of street violence. [BBC]

11:59 - A statement from Ukraine's presidency via BBC Monitoring says: "The opposition leaders' calls for a truce and dialogue were nothing but a way for playing for time to mobilize and arm militants from Maidan [Independence Square]." [BBC]

12:02 - More from President Viktor Yanukovich's statement: "They (the protesters) went on to the offensive. They are working in organised groups. They are using firearms, including sniper rifles. They are shooting to kill." [BBC]

12:10 - At least 21 civilians have been killed near Independence Square [BBC] (this early? or is this another 50-minute offset? Could be 12:50-ish.)

12:13 - Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski: "We've seen these horrific pictures from Kiev which are some of the largest uses of force in Europe in recent memory. " [BBC] (same - the 10:17 entry is actually from a 12:58 tweet)

12:15 - A first wave of protester/insurgents, coverered by rifle and pistol fire, advance up Instytustska, but are turned back by emerging Berkut (shooting at their feet). [clock] This is shown in this English-narrated analysis video At 6:00 it explains the Maidan announcer says "Don't shoot our comrades in the back. Pay attention." 6:00 - 13:00 Suggesting he's talking tactically, not metaphorically, same voice calls for "400 to October Palace height," just before it was swarmed at 12:22 (see 13:00 in the video).

12:22 - On order from the Maidan announcer, major swarming of the October Palace begins. Berkut begin withdrawal. [clock]

App. 12:26 - The last (it seems) of the Berkut at the yellow-walled October Palace evacuate, as insurgent hurl fire, fireworks, and gunfire at them. They march south up Instytutska. [clock - see 5:00-6:38 in 41-min vid, end lines up w/2:26 in RT reporter's video It's insurgent held after this.

(by) 12:37 - One policeman is killed and 28 suffer gunshot wounds on Thursday, Interior Ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov tells the Associated Press. [BBC] The Telegraph reports "Police said a sniper perched on a hotel roof had injured 20 officers with live ammunition fire."

Sniper Massacre

‎‏@BSpringnote Feb 20 1:14 pm: Good foto. Dome is metro and street is Institutska. Left sidewalk covered in blood. Snipers in Green building.
‏@BSpringnote on Twitter as in real life the American volunteer member of the Donbass Battalion Mark "Franko" Paslawsky who was killed in the attack on Ilovaisk in August 2014. If he took this photo himself, it would place him somewhere hear the tenth floor of Hotel Ukraine at the time of the Maidan sniper shootings.

12:25 - photo of a man with a bullet lodged in his neck is tweeted [I20]

App. 12:32 - based on the 12:26 entry above, RT's reporter in his video says it was five or 7 minutes after police left that bullets started flying and people started getting shot behind the hotel.

12:44 - Thirteen of the protesters killed in Independence Square on Thursday morning died from single gunshot wounds fired by a sniper, a medic in Independence Square tells Interfax-Ukraine news agency. [BBC]

12:44 - Moment of medic Olesya Zhukovska's famous original tweet "I am dying." She was reportedly hit in the neck by a sniper, just moments before, but lived with little problem. Location unclear.

12:51 - Kateryna Kruk, The Guardian tweets: "Snipers are shooting from from Hotel Ukraina and Instytutsjka, more dead around" [BBC]

12:58 - (10:17 as given) "Mustafa Nayyem, journalist in Kiev tweets this picture, allegedly of snipers." [BBC]

12:59 - Matt McCrary tweets: A sniper shot out my hotel room window #Kiev, aiming at camera on tripod. #hotelukraine

1:00 - "As of 11 am, snipers are at work. Over ten people reported dead." This seems to be in GMT time. [Trans]

1:01 - Leaders of protesters' "self-defence units" put out a Facebook statement saying they "will do all they can to stop the bloodshed and guarantee top officials' security" if police stop firing, says BBC Monitoring's Vitaliy Shevchenko.[BBC]

1:04 - Olga Bohomolets: A sniper is operating near Hotel Ukraine. Be careful! Already dozens of wounded and, tragically, 3 dead. Please bring ambulances as close to Hotel Ukraine as possible, to bring out the wounded. [Trans]

1:08 - "Lifeless bodies of 11 people, covered in blood, seen by CNN crew in lobby of Ukraine Hotel, Kiev, amid protests." [I20]

1:14 pm: ‎‏@BSpringnote tweets photo from Hotel Ukraine window: Good foto. Dome is metro and street is Institutska. Left sidewalk covered in blood. Snipers in Green building.

11:15 – Maidan Self-Defense Detains a Sniper Magnolia-TV: "EuroMaidan twitter reports that members of Maidan Self-Defense captured one one of the snipers. He is currently in Maidan headquarters." [Trans]

1:19 - Duncan Crawford, BBC reporter in Kiev tweets this picture of bullet holes in windows at the back of the hotel: [BBC]

1:21 - One of the three top opposition leaders in Ukraine - Arseniy Yatsenyuk - says snipers are firing at protesters from the Ukraina hotel, which dominates Independence Square. ""I demand that the president order the arrest of those security officials who gave the order to fire at people. I demand that shooting at peaceful demonstrators stop," Yatsenyuk says in a statement - Interfax-Ukraine" [BBC]

1:31: The lobby of the Ukraina hotel - overlooking Independence Square - has been turned into an impromptu morgue, AP reports, with the bodies of seven dead protesters laying side by side under white sheets on the marble floor in front of the reception desk. [BBC]

2:20 - An Associated Press reporter saw 21 bodies Thursday laid out on the edge of the sprawling protest encampment in central Kiev. In addition, one policeman was killed and 28 suffered gunshot wounds Thursday, Interior Ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov told the AP. [I20]

2:22 - Erin Alexis tweets: Situation in #Ukraine horrifying. Reports of #doctors being shot by snipers as they care for the wounded. Terrible. [BBC]

2:37 - " Intense video shows police sniping what appear to be protesters..." (2:43 video, up by now) [I20]

2:38: In a televised statement Interior Ministry spokesman Valeri Mazan denounces the protesters: "Today, despite it being the day of mourning, despite the truce, they fire at riot police and internal military forces, targeting them with weapons since the early morning on Instytutska street. At this moment there are more than 20 injured police officers who have been taken to hospital for medical treatment." [BBC]

2:46: "The armour-piercing ammunition used by snipers' "fells protesters one after another", says journalist Dmitriy Steshit, who works for Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He tweets from Institutska Street in central Kiev. [BBC]

Commenting on reports that witnesses had seen snipers firing live ammunition during the clashes, Lidington told the BBC he had raised the issue with the ambassador, who had not been able to give a "definitive view". He said: "There should be a full and independent thorough investigation of those killings." "The people responsible for those shootings need to be held to account, wherever they come from." [BBC]

3:29 PM: Igor, Kiev emails: Everyone has a right to protest, but nobody has a right to destroy a beautiful city, and hold the same city and its population hostage to political demands by violent means. [BBC]

5:20 PM (app) - just minutes before full sunset (5:24), Volodomyr Melnichuk is shot by a neck at the October Palace. He was apparently shot by a sniper, wearing "one of the protesters' green helmets," hiding inside a window on the 11th floor of the Hotel Ukraine. See #October Palace Victims above.

Maidan Funerals

Highly emotional, to huge crowds, candlelight procession, Плине кача music, soon after the peak of sniper massacre on 20 February 2014. On 21 February, 2014 an agreement between Yanukovich and the opposition, but in the evening he runs away. On 22 February, Rada strips him of his powers.

Videos

After

8:41 PM - Yulia Bragina, Sky News tweets "Our room at hotel Ukraine was just checked by armed protesters, they were looking for a sniper."

9:20 - Alexey Yaroshevsky, RT, tweets "Protesters frisking the Hotel Ukraina room looking for a sniper."

9:26 - Golenah Atai tweets (translated) "Still, we must not leave our hotel room. Government opponents looking sniper." [S20]

Massacre Video Timeline

This might be of some use in understanding the case; for one thing, I think it will help make sense of where firing was coming from. They seem to avoid filming the scenes where the shooter is cloer to them. Anyway, it seems interesting how one video cuts here while another cuts there. Edits/cuts are taken as unsure in length, and the scenes presumed sequential. Anyone can add to this, if I go too slow. Do we need further columns? I'm only considering the two semi-comprehensive videos of the shootings on Instytutska. First event, Berkut Evacuate October Palace, happened at and just ater 12:22 PM, according the the lawn clock there - it was running, and seems to be close to right at least. The rest just get further from that, and at the end we can say at least how many seconds have elapsed. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:10, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

"Other" category added. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:57, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
Victims by Source (incomplete table)
Event 41-min vid close to events 2.5-min vid from the hotel Other (cited w/entry)
Berkut Evacuate October Palace 5:30-6:30 - the north area clears first, fireworks and gunshots, and all march right/south n/a Overrun by 12:25 - lawn clock vid
early victims 7:58 two men in already down, poss. dead, dragged to the hotel. Poss. Berkut victims, as they were present. n/a
Berkut run further away 9:06-9:28 Three Berkut run from a barricade at the Metro, poss. gunman chasing. Now they're gone. n/a
left and right flanks move in 10:29-11:28: both sides move little. At the end, the left flank is upon the far barricade. Right, poss. pinned down already. 0:00-0:24 Right flank followed as it passes the hotel and nears the Metro. First shot from behind 0:18
left flank under fire 11:26-12:03 At least one or two injuries. One man is crawling. They fall back. not shown
Right flank takes cover (the rest of this is right flank getting massacred) not shown 0:22-0:30
Men downed on the sidewalk not shown 0:39-45 Three fall, one dead, 2 run
15:55-16:32 - another body is removed 1:46-2:02 - same scene (for reference - they line up exactly here: 16:19=1:57)

More sources

A section to organize, anchor original citations for, and comment on, at least some important sources that are, or should be, cited here.

When they finally let me through, the first thing I saw was a Berkut soldier on a stretcher, covered in blood, his face ruined and his arm barely attached to his body. Yes, that’s exactly what I mean – his arm was almost completely blown off. I still want to know what happened to him, whether he survived or not, because his wounds were very serious. I didn’t have time to consider what could possibly have caused this much damage to a soldier wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet..."
But I may have a lead, and an attempt on Twitter to make 2-way contact here. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:02, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
Thanks to CE for that video, I can put together this possible answer. --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:40, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
This I'll move. He cites snipers on the roof of the philharmonic hall (Ukr: філармонія ) which seems to be one of two related buildings about 250 meters north and n-ne of the October Palace. I can't imagine this shooting had nearly as much relevance as the stuff we've been looking at. But other buildings were involved too, unnamed.
According to Yakimenko, during the massacre the opposition leaders contacted him and asked him to deploy special force unit to scoop out the snipers from buildings in central Kiev, but Parubiy made sure that won’t happen. “The Right Sector and Freedom Party have requested me to use the Alpha group to cleanse these buildings, stripping them from snipers,” Yakimenko said. According to him Ukrainian troops were ready to move in and eliminate the shooters.
It's a story with one villain, pretty much. Doesn't sound right. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:49, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
Snipers, who were killing people during the Euromaidan, were situated in the building of philharmonic society. At a point in time, the building was controlled by Andrey Parubiy, commandant of the Euromaidan, Alexander Yakimenko, former Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, told Rossiya 1 Russian TV channel. He thinks that Parubiy contacted with the US intelligence representatives.
See below. --CE (talk) 19:26, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
Interview with the International Association of anti-terror units "Alpha", the chairman of "the Association of Veterans of Special Forces" Berkut "Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine" Vladimir Kraszewski that the mystery of the "black company of" action and special forces on February 20.
English /Russian subs

Whodunit?

Moved to /Suspects

Sponsors?

Alleged intercept of a phone call from Igor Kolomoisky to Andrey Ivanchuk (said to be close to Yatseniuk). A man with voice and style strongly resembling Kolomoisky says (1:28 on the video) that :

I will tell how much money he (Yatseniuk) received from us, for elections, for Maidan, for all that shit (хуйня -Rus.) ..and all that he has been doing...Fuck, let him now keep his ass tied up. Do you understand me ?

The rest has to do with business disagreements, most likely including the phrase 'let's see so that this is not in (front of) an English court'. Because of those disagreements, Kolomoisky is threatening 'to take a close look' on Yatseniuk.

This is not particular sensational, moneys for great number of things will come from this or that oligarch, possibly supporting the opposing side too; still of certain historic and linguistic value --Resup (talk) 00:19, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Snipers sow fear and death in Kiev's urban conflict By Richard Balmforth, Reuters, February 21, 2014
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ukraine unrest: Where were snipers positioned in Kiev? BBC News, Gabriel Gatehouse reporting, February 25, 2014
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 BBC Raw: Under sniper fire in Ukraine uprising BBC News, 28 February 2014 Last updated at 15:05 GMT. cameraman Jack Garland and reporter Gabriel Gatehouse (footage shot February 20)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Russia and Ukraine give different versions of sniper tragedy that drove Yanukovych from power Associated Press, via Fox News. March 7, 2014. AP Writers Edith Lederer at the United Nations and Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
  5. ↑ Avakov: “Third force” involved in Kyiv bloodshed, translation of UNIAN news agency article, based on a statement of Interior Minister Arsan Avakov. March 5, 2014
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Maidan Translators: all posts tagged "snipers" Accessed February 28, 2014
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Кто организовал бойню на Институтской? Вопросы к "Батькивщине" (Who organized the massacre at Instytutska ? Questions to the " Fatherland ") By Alexander Vorontsov, УБОП (ubop.net.ua/) February 25, 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 As it Happened: Clashes in Central Kiev BBC News, February 20, 2014
  9. ↑ Inside Kiev’s Ukraine Hotel – the Makeshift Hospital and Morgueby Kirit Radia, ABC News Feb 20, 2014 2:24 pm

Crimea

Moved to Talk:Russia invades Crimea#Provocateur sniper incident
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